Let’s say you’re considering joining a fitness class or exercise group of some kind, and you want to be reasonably sure that you’re being led by a good fitness instructor or trainer. What criteria do you use? What signs do you look for?

For the answers, yours truly turned to an article from the Los Angeles Examiner, given that LA is probably the fitness instruction and training capital of the western hemisphere, and the locals should have plenty of experience in this area. In a nutshell, here is what Southern Californians look for.

• Your FI (Fitness Instructor) should be in good physical condition, obviously: If their regimen isn’t working for them, its prospects for you are not promising.
• Your FI should have a bearing of confidence and professionalism, which includes being organized, at ease, cordial and arriving on time.
• Your FI should inquire as to your goals, your current level of physical activity and your health, specifically with regard to any conditions that may limit your movements.
• Your FI should set reasonable goals based on this information, and should motivate you by being positive and giving encouragement and not by nagging and criticizing you for not attempting or achieving enough.
• Your FI should design workouts that are physically demanding, but sufficiently manageable that you will make, and want to continue making, progress.

Playing “Chopsticks” could maybe burn off 50 calories or so

There are a thousand ways of beguiling people into exercising, but in Stockholm, Sweden, they’ve come up with number 1,001. At that city’s Odenplan subway station, they painted a flight of steps, located right next to the escalator, to look exactly like enormous piano keys, and somehow technologically wired each step to sound that note, as played on a piano, when stepped on.

The result produced by those taking the stairs ranges from harmony to cacaphony, with a few moments of jazz improvisation.

The idea was to entice people off the escalator and onto the stairs for health and exercise purposes, and in fact the foot traffic has increased by 66 percent since the stairway became a Steinway, so to speak.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

How to spot a good workout trainer, and Sweden’s stairway to fitness

The Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Environment Committee had its first hearing on the issue this week, and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told the committee that the reauthorization presents an opportunity for the government to do more about childhood hunger and improve the health and nutrition of kids across the country.

“The scale of these programs means that reforms can have a major impact on tens of millions of school children,” he said. “For instance, the National School Lunch Program serves 31 million school children in more than 100,000 schools across the country. The School Breakfast Program is available in over 88,000 schools and about 11 million children participate on an average day.”

Scale of problems is large

He said the problems addressed by the legislation are significant and crucial to the future health of the nation, particularly considering new research released by his department saying that the number of households that had trouble putting food on the table last year reached a record high of 14.6 percent of households.

The study found that 8.9 percent of households had low food security and 5.7 percent had very low food security. In 2007, the total number of food insecure households was just 11.1 percent. Vilsack defined food insecurity as skipping meals, eating less at meals or going whole days without food.
“This legislation is an opportunity to in one stroke confront both the challenges of obesity and hunger — with the prospect of better health and well-being in the years to come,” he said. “Investing in meal quality and access to these critical programs will help support the capacity of our young people to learn and acquire the tools necessary to become the leaders of tomorrow.”

What the bill does

The Child Nutrition Act is most known as being the bill that regulates the School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program, both of which are automatically reauthorized. But it also covers other food programs including the Summer Food Service Program, the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and the Child and Adult Care Food Program, among other programs.

Some of these programs actually do have expiration dates so they have to be reapproved and funded from time to time.

Expected changes

The Institute of Medicine has already called for stricter standards for the school breakfast and lunch programs, including imposing calorie limits for the first time, providing more fruits and vegetables and leaner meats and dairy products.

It is expected that these recommendations will be incorporated into the reauthorization, as well as calls for fewer processed foods and more training for cafeteria staff in regards to safe food handling.

The final reauthorization bill is not expected to be passed until after the holidays.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Child nutrition reauthorization gets rolling

That means that 21 percent of healthcare dollars will be spent on obesity and related ailments, up from an already significant 9 percent today.

Colorado will be healthiest, but not by much

The report predicts that more than half of all the residents of Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota will be obese in 2018, and Colorado, long ranked as the slimmest state in the nation, will be the only state in the union with an obesity rate below 30 percent.

In all, about 103 million Americans are expected to be obese by 2018, and with that rise should come a significant increase in the number of people with diabetes, heart problems, high blood pressure and some cancers that have been linked to excess weight.

While the nation has made progress in cutting the rates of other preventable health problems like cancer and heart disease, there’s been no progress in limiting the rising rate of obesity, the report says. Like tobacco use has been a major challenge in the past, obesity is becoming the most important public health problem the nation faces.

Even though the United States spends more on healthcare per capita than any other country, 30 nations outrank us in terms of life expectancy, and we have the highest death rates from treatable conditions of 19 industrialized nations studied.

The United States ranked dead last in terms of health when compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Britain.

Congress needs to make prevention a priority

Because of the huge spike in health costs obesity is expected to bring about, Kenneth Thorpe from the Emory School of Public Health says Congress needs to put obesity at the top of its agenda if it has any hope of controlling healthcare costs.

He says Americans need to see that obesity is a dangerous health problem that can and does kill people, that the stigma of obesity doesn’t negate the need to recognize and treat it, that employers need to play more of a role in getting and keeping their workers healthy and that the healthcare system needs to treat obesity like a preventable medical condition rather than something seemingly inevitable.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Obesity noted as America’s most pressing health problem

First, Tim took the contestants shopping for new outfits, and then they moved on to hair and makeup. Soon after their makeovers, Tim surprised them with a visit from their loved ones, and then they each took the stage and gave inspiring and emotional speeches.

Swinging toward inspiration

Back at the ranch, the “Biggest Loser” contestants participated in a physical challenge that terrified Liz, because she is afraid of heights. Each player got into what looked like a swing that hung 200 feet above the ground! They used a pulley to drag themselves across a distance of 700 feet to huge posters of their old selves, and the contestant who crossed first won a two-week trip for themselves and their family to the new Biggest Loser Spa Resort.

Once again, Rudy took the lead from the beginning with Amanda close on his tail. No matter how hard Amanda tried to pass Rudy, he kept his lead and won the fabulous prize. Although Rudy came in first and won the prize, everyone continued until he or she reached their poster, and as soon as they all made it across, they released another huge poster of their new self, which fell over the previous poster.

Opening up and weighing in

Because the makeovers and speeches took a lot of the Biggest Losers’ time, Bob and Jillian really buckled down on the contestants during this last chance workout. In addition to working with the other contestants, Jillian decided to spend a little one-on-one time with Rudy. She was determined to get him to open up about his sister’s battle with cancer.

During Rudy’s speech, he revealed that he had a sister who was diagnosed with cancer, and he said it took her life two years prior to him coming on the show. However, Rudy didn’t really feel it was necessary to bring that personal tragedy into the game, but Jillian continued to try to get him to talk about it. Jillian assumed his sister’s battle with cancer played a role in his mental ability to lose weight.

After another grueling last chance workout, the “Biggest Loser” contestants made their way to the scale. With less gym time this week, many of them wondered if they did enough to stay above the yellow line.

Danny, who had lost double digits five weeks in a row, hoped to see another big number as he stepped onto the scale. Danny lost 12 pounds (3.8 percent), giving him double digits for six weeks in a row. “I will be below 300 next week . . . no matter what,” Danny vowed.

When Rudy lost a whopping 16 pounds (4.94 percent), he became the “Biggest Loser” contestant with the highest weight loss total.

Allen was a bit disappointed when he discovered that he’d lost 5 pounds (2.06 percent). He feared his 5-pound loss wouldn’t be enough to keep him in the game, but Jillian told him it was a good number for his weight of 238 pounds. While Allen worried about losing enough weight each week to stay above the yellow line so he could win “The Biggest Loser,” Bob was afraid he’d lose too much weight just to win, which Bob said would be an “unhealthy” weight loss.

Rebecca lost 3 pounds (1.44 percent).

Liz lost 3 pounds (1.46 percent).

Amanda lost 9 pounds (4.46 percent), which is the most she’s ever lost in a week since she came to “The Biggest Loser” ranch.

Making the choice

Unfortunately, Liz and Rebecca fell below the yellow line. Before talking to her competitors, Liz admitted she’s not good at fighting to stay, so, once again, she didn’t fight. Rebecca, on the other hand, asked Rudy and Allen if she could speak with them alone.

While Rebecca pleaded with Rudy and Allen to keep her, Danny encouraged Liz to talk to Rudy and Allen and fight to be there. Liz took Danny’s advice and used her age as a reason to keep her around over Rebecca, who, according to Liz, is still young and has several years ahead of her.

In the end, Amanda voted for Liz, and Danny and Rudy voted to send Rebecca home. Rebecca was upset with Rudy when he told her the reason he voted for her was because he felt he couldn’t trust her since he thought she was “playing on both sides of the fence.”

Throughout Rebecca’s journey on “The Biggest Loser” ranch and at home, she’s lost 73 pounds thus far and has run a half marathon.

(By Misti Sandefur for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Biggest Loser season 8, episode 10: Sporting a New Look

It’s that time again! In just one week we enter the dreaded Holiday Season, that chunk of the calendar from Thanksgiving Day to whenever they get around to playing the Super Bowl, a period just brimming over with events at which eating is one of the main activities, and in some cases the whole idea.

It’s 10 weeks of caloric temptation and overkill, a kind of Bataan Death March for the average dieter’s nutritional good intentions. The challenge for multitudes of us becomes preventing that 10 weeks from translating into 10 pounds, added to whatever we already weigh.

There are, of course, loads of tips and suggestions and rules for minimizing the caloric damage, and if you’re concerned with your weight, you probably already know a few. But it never hurts to run through some of them again, especially at this point in time. Think of it as like brushing up on your CPR training before taking off on that river rafting trip.

Print, save and read when tempted to take second helpings

• Buffet meals are a real minefield. Fill two-thirds of your plate with salad and veggies first; they’ll fill you up harmlessly, and this leaves less room for the belly-busting likes of pork loin and gravy and candied yams and deep fried whatever. Don’t “try just a smidgen of everything.” You’ll wind up with a larger plate load, not to mention eating items you’d be better off skipping. And don’t eat near the buffet table; in a separate room would be wisest.
• Don’t skip meals or starve yourself before the holiday meal to balance out your expectations of overeating; you’re just initiating a self-fulfilling process. Eat normally, and if the big meal is later than usual, have a snack in advance; the idea is to not be ravenously hungry when dinner is served.
• If you limit yourself to only those food items that you really enjoy, you’ll probably lower your overall intake level and certainly raise your enjoyment level.
• Alcohol is calorie-intensive, stimulates the appetite, and dulls one’s judgment and self-restraint. The less you consume, the better.
• Be sociable. Chat up the other guests, friends or family members while eating; you’ll eat more slowly, and thus less.
• Two points with regard to the turkey. Number one, the dark meat packs more calories than the white. Number two, if you miss horribly the joy of eating nice, crisp turkey skin, be of good cheer. According to the Department of Agriculture, the skin accompanying a half-pound serving of roasted turkey delivers just 71 calories and a dozen grams of relatively benign fat. Our advice: enjoy the skin, but skip the eggnog.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Surviving holiday meals: a refresher course for dieters

Class-action status approved

We recently got word from the anti-Kimkins site Say No to Kimkins that the lawsuit against Diaz has been made into a class action in Riverside County Superior Court in California.

The class includes anyone who signed up for an account on the Kimkins website between January 1, 2006, and October 15, 2007. The plaintiffs who originally started the suit are six people who had memberships in the site, and they are suing Diaz as well as the Kimkins.com business entity.

They contend that they were induced into becoming members of the site through false and misleading information and are suing under California code that calls for relief for people who’ve been subject to unfair, unlawful or fraudulent business practices.

In particular, according to the announcement at Say No to Kimkins, the plaintiffs allege:

• that Diaz and Kimkins concocted a false persona, “Kim Drake” or “Kimmer” to sell memberships to Kimkins.com
• that Diaz and Kimkins misled potential members into believing that “Kim Drake” was real by using photos of real women and then falsely claiming that the photos depicted “Drake”
• that Diaz and Kimkins posted lies about “Drake’s” purported weight loss
• that Diaz and Kimkins provided false or misleading information to Woman’s World magazine
• that Diaz and Kimkins fabricated 41 “success stories” and published on Kimkins.com
• that Diaz and Kimkins made up celebrity endorsements
• that Diaz and Kimkins misused labels and metatags to steer Internet traffic to Kimkins.com, in violation of the law
• that Diaz and Kimkins misled potential members into believing that they were buying lifetime memberships, when in fact Diaz and Kimkins.com terminated memberships at their whim
• that Diaz and Kimkins intended to mislead potential members and assumed that potential members would rely on her misrepresentations

Diaz has denied all wrongdoing.

About the class

Anyone who became a member of the website during the time in question is automatically a party to the class action, but people can opt out of the lawsuit if desired by contacting the attorneys who represent the class.

While the announcement makes it sound like only those people who were personally injured by the website and diet plan can opt out of the lawsuit, of course anyone in the class should be able to. We find it a little fishy, too, that it’s suggesting you opt out by contacting the attorneys, since that could be a privacy violation.

Also, the report suggests checking into the court documents online; they are no longer available there. So if you’re a part of this class and want more information, proceed with caution.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Kimkins Diet gets class-action status

Q: Can you help me? I love heroin!

My love affair with heroin started, I imagine, in utero, since my mother liked heroin, though not nearly with the love I felt! It grew with my formula and baby food having high levels of heroin.

Being the good mother that she was, when I got home from school, there would always be a plate with some heroin for me as a reward for my day’s studies.

As I got older, and spent more time with my friends, we would often stop at the heroin shop after school. Heroin made me tired, too, so I didn’t do much in gym classes.

When I began dating, it seemed my dates often wanted me to not have so much heroin. I tried that for a while, but I didn’t like sneaking it when they weren’t around, so I found other people more like me so we could support each other and have all the heroin we wanted.

I’ve thought about having children one day, but I know heroin affects fertility in women and sperm quality in men, and I just can‘t seem to stop using it. Some of my friends have gotten diabetes, and even needed hip and knee replacements.

I know the heroin has something to do with that.

I’ve thought about changing my relationship with heroin, but I never get beyond the talking stage, and then when I use more heroin, I feel that it really isn’t that important to change who I am. Sometimes, though, like now, I wonder if maybe I can be different and really change my life, so before I change my mind, I thought I would write you and ask for your advice.

No, this is not a real letter about loving heroin, however, a recent study has drawn some very interesting and unfortunate similarities between the effects of eating foods high in salt, sugar and fat and the addictive effects of using heroin!

The Scripps Research Institute in Florida recently studied the effects and response to a diet based on human junk food in rats. Their conclusion was the brain responds to junk food the same way it does to heroin!

Rats given unlimited access to high-calorie unhealthy food became compulsive overeaters as the pleasure pathways in their brains became less and less responsive, forcing them to consume more to get the same amount of pleasure.

“Not only did we find that the animals’ brain reward circuits became less responsive at they continued to overeat and become obese,” says Paul Kenny, an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at Scripps, “but that decrease in responsiveness was similar to what our laboratory has seen previously in rats as they become addicted to cocaine or heroin.”

Tachyphylaxis is a term used in medicine to describe needing a higher and higher dosage of a drug to get the same therapeutic effect. The same happens to you with salt, sugar and fat!

“This is the most complete evidence to date that suggests obesity and drug addiction have common neurobiological underpinnings,” says study coauthor Paul Johnson.

To demonstrate how strong the drive to eat junk food was, the researchers exposed the rats to a foot shock when they ate the food. Rats that had not been constantly exposed to the junk food quickly stopped eating; the foot shock, however, did not stop the rats who were accustomed to the junk food, they continued to eat even though they knew the shock was coming.

Furthermore, after 40 days of unrestricted access to the junk foods, the rats were then deprived of it and offered a more nutritious food pellet. The animals refused to eat, even though they were starving!

“What we have are the core features of addiction, and these animals are hitting each one of these features,” Kenny says.

Breaking the addiction

Dealing with an addiction is not an easy matter, especially when the addictive substance is necessary for life, but you can modify the addiction and you can manage it.

Many people with addictions waste time, in my opinion, trying to figure out why they are addicted and what caused them to become addicted in the first place. Really, in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter what the answers are; besides, you have your whole life to figure it out. Stop the addictive behavior and trust me, it will all become a lot clearer.

It is a well-supported fact that people with addictions cannot see their problem with clarity, let alone process what it’s all about. If you think you can, you are fooling yourself.

The key is to decrease your exposure to the substances that you are addicted to, in this case, salt, sugar and fat, and I would decrease all of them at once, as they seem to have a synergistic effect when consumed together. What will happen, if you do this, is that you will get a normal, satisfying effect from a much lower dose of these substances.

I do not support cheat days, or letting it go for the holiday season, or any other way of eating that does not decrease your addictive exposure all of the time. If you continue to intermittently reinforce the addictive behavior, it will never be controlled!

If a person does not, or is unwilling to make a significant change in their self-destructive behaviors, yet claims to want to be different, it’s like they are living the same movie reel over and over, and expecting the end to be different.

Change the reel, change your life!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J will see you now: On heroin and junk food

New drug possibilities

Recent drug trials have focused on three new diet pills: Qnexa, which combines the appetite suppressant phentermine with an epilepsy drug that is supposed to make people feel fuller; Contrave, a combo appetite suppressant and drug to speed weight loss; and Lorcaserin, which is supposed to switch off hunger signals in the brain and help users maintain their metabolism.

The “Nightline” story looked at two successful users of the drug Qnexa. Sixty-year-old active mom of four Meg Evans played soccer but was still 232 pounds thanks to her unwillingness to eat healthier foods. And 42-year-old dad Chris Dickerson said that at 343 pounds he was too tired to play with his kids.

After taking part in the study, Dickerson weighed in at 270 pounds and had the energy to coach his son’s football team. Evans dropped to 177 and said her blood pressure was down and her knees felt better.

Qnexa is the drug of the three that has shown the most dramatic results so far, with an average weight loss of 14.7 percent in one year. Contrave showed weight loss between 8.1 and 11.5 percent in a year, and Lorcaserin users lost and average of 8 percent of their weight.

Not so fast

While this story naturally paints a rosy picture of weight-loss drugs, there are always potential problems. For instance, none of these drugs have yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, so there’s no telling when or if they will hit the market. The drugmakers report no serious side effects, but further study may pick something up.

The story only highlights people who had success with the drug, but such drugs never work dramatically for everyone. And, as is noted in the story, it’s possible that once someone is on one of these drugs, they’ll need to keep taking them for the long-term, perhaps even for life, to be able to keep the weight off. And at this point no one knows what effect that would have on the health of a patient.

So while it’s great to consider the possibilities of a weight-loss drug that makes it easy to lose however much excess weight you need to, it’s important to remember the reality isn’t always so rosy as the news stories would have you believe.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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“Miracle” diet pills on the horizon

Now the Food and Drug Administration says that the makers of such products need to prove that they are safe in order to be able to stay on the market. The agency says it has never approved the use of caffeine in alcoholic beverages and doesn’t know why the companies marketing such beverages decided it was safe to combine the two.

What the safety rules say

The FDA rules on food and beverage products are laid out in the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which says that additives in products are considered unsafe if they haven’t been explicitly approved for that purpose, the substance hasn’t been previously approved, or for a use that isn’t generally regarded as safe.

The agency says none of these apply in the case of caffeine in alcoholic beverages, so it’s up to the companies that make the beverages to prove “safety at the levels used and a basis to conclude that this evidence is generally known and accepted by qualified experts.”

Caffeine is only approved as an additive in soft drinks and in an amount no greater than 200 parts per million. Its use in alcoholic beverages has not been approved.

What happens next

The companies in question have 30 days to provide their rationale for using caffeine in their products to the FDA. If the agency doesn’t agree with the arguments presented or the companies don’t comply, the FDA says it will take steps to remove the offending products from the marketplace.

What’s the big deal?

A task force of state attorneys general requested the FDA look at the beverages, saying they think caffeine masks the intoxicating effects of alcohol, which may make young drinkers in particular more likely to get behind the wheel with potentially deadly consequences.

Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut’s attorney general, said the ultimate goal of the group is to ban the sale of such beverages to young drinkers.

But even if these products aren’t available in a convenient, ready to drink form, young people and others will continue to combine caffeine and alcohol, whether in a vodka and Red Bull or a rum and Coke.

And one wonders why the FDA says in its press release that caffeine has only been approved for use in soft drinks, yet energy drinks without alcohol are apparently allowed without justifying their safety. We’ll see in a month’s time what the companies come up with and how the FDA responds.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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FDA targets caffeinated alcoholic beverages

Schwitzer said in a note on his website that the state of health reporting on TV has always been bad and it’s just gotten worse over the years. The site gives articles a star rating on a scale of one to five, and of the 228 stories from television the site has reviewed in the past three and a half years, the average rating has been 2.1 stars.

ABC’s “Good Morning America” and CBS’ “The Early Show” had the poorest showing, with average scores of 1.8 each. The best broadcast (if you can call it that) in terms of accuracy is “NBC Nightly News,” which managed an average score of 2.7.

Of all the stories ever reviewed on the site, 40 have gotten no stars at all, and 27 of those — or 68 percent — came from network television reports.

Schwitzer complained that stories often left out the necessary context of studies, such as what the potential harms of a weight loss drug combo might be or the fact that a study being presented as a breakthrough was conducted in rats instead of humans.

The perils of cyberchondria

Another issue covered on the broadcast was cyberchondria, the affliction of Googling your health problem only to jump to the conclusion that you’ve got a dread disease rather than something more basic.

A Washington Post columnist shared her battle with the problem, which involved self-diagnosing an eyelid twitch as either multiple sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Carolyn Butler says the more you read about your symptom, the more likely you are to think of what’s probably no big deal as being a potentially fatal problem.

She notes that studies have found a third of people who search online for health problems tend to escalate their searches from the basics to more serious diseases, and she likened the problem to the issue of medical students thinking they have some horrible fatal disease as they learn about it in their studies.

As it turns out, Butler wasn’t dying, she was allergic to an ingredient in an eye cream she had recently started using.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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TV news often gets health stories wrong

Your correspondent has a weakness for news items involving criminals who have used obesity as a means to avoid being arrested, or failing that, to avoid being convicted, or failing that, to avoid being punished. Here are three fresh examples, hot off the world stage.

Inside every fat criminal, there’s a thin criminal, possibly on the lam

In Anyang, China, a thief named Qu, wanted for stealing electric bicycles, holed up in a motel and had friends steadily supply him with meals and snack food while he essentially did nothing for a month but eat, sleep and watch TV, hoping to grow so fat that if the cops came around, they wouldn’t recognize him.

And it worked, at least once, when a tip led the police who were looking for him to question Qu and six other motel guests. His features having expanded with some 35 extra pounds, he successfully copped a fake identity. Alas for Qu, he was subsequently ratted out a second time, properly identified and taken in.

Our advice: Next time just try a fake beard and Groucho glasses, Qu; they’ll be far less trouble, easier on your body and probably just as successful.

Lose flab, lose case

Then we have Mr. Edward Ates, on trial for gunning down his son-in-law from atop a staircase, whose defense was that at 5 foot 8 and 285 pounds, he was too out of shape and immobile to have run up the stairs, done the deed, and then dashed quickly away as the prosecution claimed.

The jury failed to buy this argument and returned a guilty verdict in just two days, perhaps because of a serious tactical error on Ates’ part: losing 60 pounds while in jail awaiting trial, and evidently looking fit enough to the jurors to pull the crime off.

Dead weight

And finally, Richard Cooey, convicted of a double homicide, who appealed his death sentence claiming that given his corpulence — 5 foot 7 and 267 pounds — his layers of fat would make execution by lethal injection so difficult and physically torturous as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

As it turned out, the procedure went quite smoothly, putting a grisly new twist on the phrase “dead wrong.”

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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On being, literally, criminally overweight

I don’t know what you eat before you have to fly, what with the abundant food courts in all the major airports now, but as a private pilot, flying my own plane, I usually don’t eat before or while I fly!

I do have vivid memories of my first flight instructor, Paul of the iron stomach who never met turbulence he didn’t like, eating away on our first cross-country flight. It was a three and a half hour jaunt along the Florida east coast, from Daytona Beach to Miami. The coastal scenery was wonderful, and for Paul, the cramped seating and glare shield of our C-152 made for a comfy dining area, so as I concentrated on doing the flying, Paul concentrated on doing the eating, and it all worked out fine!

You are what you eat

A new study, funded by the military, looked to see what types of foods were best for pilots when their missions restricted when or what they could eat.

The researchers found 45 sober, awake and non-distracted student pilots and assessed how different foods affected the student’s performance. For the 14-week study, each pilot rotated through four different diets: high-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-protein and a control diet. The menus were similar so the type of diet wouldn’t become obvious to the participants.

The study design had the pilots use a flight simulator to descend in cloudy weather when the runway wasn’t visible, flying on instruments. The pilots then had to climb into a holding pattern, and maintain that as well. They also were given tests that required memorizing and repeating numbers to test short-term memory, and comparing shapes to test spatial awareness.

The University of North Dakota researchers found that pilots who ate the fattiest foods had the quickest response times in mental tests and made fewer mistakes when flying in the challenging cloud conditions. Based on their test scores, pilots on the high-fat and high-carb diets performed substantially better than those who ate the high-protein diet. The high-fat dieters did slightly better than the high-carb dieters.

Getting the right vitamins

The researchers suspected that the better performance with the high-carbohydrate and high-fat diets was possibly related to metabolism of B complex vitamins found with higher carbohydrate intake. It is thought that the fats may help slow down carbohydrate absorption, allowing for greater availability of the B vitamins, as deficiency of B vitamins has been shown to lead to poorer cognition.

So even though all participants received the recommended daily amounts of B vitamins, they might not have had enough of the vitamins available to them when eating the high-protein diet.

Could diet remove pilot error?

“These study results contribute significantly to our understanding of the effects diet can have on cognition and performance,” says Glenda Lindseth PhD, RN, chief investigator. “With additional research, these findings may help decrease the number of aviation accidents due to pilot error, which is especially important for the combat pilot.”

Military experts hope the research will eventually help improve pilots’ performance. National Transportation Safety Board statistics show more than 80 percent of civil and military accidents are caused by pilot error.

Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, a physiological science professor at UCLA who was not involved in the study, said he would like to see these results studied further.

“Most studies indicate that a diet of saturated fats like those found in junk food reduces cognitive performance,” he said. “I will be more interested to see what they find when they monitor the composition of the diet.”

Lindseth also feels more research is needed to determine whether the findings can be repeated and will have a longer-term effect. She went on to add that they planned to conduct follow up studies after the new year.

“I think that this does have an impact for the military, especially on the pilots who are flying, but also for anybody who needs to be alert and have high cognitive performance,” she said.

Until additional studies are performed, however, my suggestion as to how you modify your diet, based on the results of this pilot study is, if you don’t have an abundance of the right stuff, don’t eat too much of the wrong stuff!

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Dr. J on eating the right stuff

We hear about vegetables’ importance to health all the time, but many children and adolescents still don’t eat even one serving a day. Some parents assume that eating vegetables is something kids pick up later in life. Yet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report in a recent survey that only 13 percent of high school students say they eat at least three servings of vegetables per day.

Besides, researchers say, kids who skip vegetables miss out on health benefits that start to build early. It turns out that parents who serve vegetables in ways that they themselves enjoy are the most powerful influence on raising a vegetable-eater.

If you like veggies, your kids will, too

A review of 60 studies concluded that seeing their parents eat and enjoy vegetables was the most powerful influence in promoting vegetable consumption among kids. That’s a problem, because one study of vegetable consumption in young children found that only a quarter of parents ate more than one vegetable a day, a long way from the minimum of three to five servings recommended for adults.

Simply having fruit in the home may be all that’s needed to encourage its consumption, at least for older children who can grab it for a snack on their own. Since vegetables often require some preparation, however, it may be important not only that they are brought home, but that they are served at meals or made ready for snacks.

Encourage, don’t nag

How much should parents encourage or enforce vegetable consumption? Not all of the 60 studies in the review above addressed this issue, but of those that did, parental encouragement was linked with greater vegetable consumption in children ages 6 to 11; parental pressure was generally not.

Among adolescents, parents’ vegetable consumption remained an important influence but parental encouragement no longer surfaced as key to vegetable consumption.

Some experts on children’s eating behavior suggest that parental pressure could be a negative influence on their children’s vegetable consumption. They suggest that forcing vegetables or rewarding their consumption teaches children that these are not enjoyable foods.

Other researchers say that it may not always be parental pressure that causes kids to proclaim themselves vegetable haters; sometimes kids may become afraid of vegetables and other new foods on their own, leading parents to react out of fear trying to force vegetables.

Dislike of trying new foods, called “neophobia,” is very common in children ages 2 to 5 but can continue for years and is linked with low vegetable consumption. Parents help kids gradually outgrow this fear by continuing to serve a variety of foods. Studies show that parents often give up on a new food after three to five tries; experts recommend a minimum of eight to 15 tries, and kids may still need to see and then try a food many times before they truly enjoy it. Very small portions make new foods less overwhelming.

Getting more veg in your kids

One low-key way to expose children to vegetables and increase their consumption is to incorporate significant amounts of vegetables into mixed dishes. In one study, adding extra pureed vegetables to a mixed pasta dish increased vegetable consumption, and 79 percent of the children reported that it tasted the same or better than a low-vegetable version.

This study involved a preschool setting, but the idea can easily be duplicated at home, adding pureed, shredded or chopped vegetables to pasta, soup and other mixed dishes.

While we wait for more answers on how to best encourage a vegetable-eating habit, research suggests a three-part strategy to raise vegetable lovers: Make a wide variety of vegetables available served in different ways that you enjoy and with flavors that generally appeal to your kids; keep serving the vegetables, perhaps trying new ways to fix them, knowing that kids may need many exposures before they really like them; let your children see you enjoying vegetables and encourage, but don’t pressure, them to share in the enjoyment.

(This article was provided by the American Institute for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C. A registered dietician is available to respond to questions about diet, nutrition, and cancer at the free AICR Hotline at 1 (800) 843-8114 during business hours.)

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How to raise vegetable eaters

A study in mice by Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon of Washington University in St. Louis and others found that mice that were implanted with the bacteria known as Firmicutes that came from obese mice gained more weight than mice implanted with bacteria from lean mice, even though all the mice ate the same diet.

Previous research had shown that obese mice had more Firmicutes, while lean mice had more of another kind of bacteria called Bacteroidetes. The animals with more Firmicutes convert more of the food they eat into energy, thus gaining more weight more easily.

How this might work in humans

Of course mice and humans are not the same, though many studies done in mice seem to have relevance to humans as well. In this particular study, researchers also took bacteria from the intestines of a lean human donor and implanted them in mice that had been fed a low-fat, plant-based diet before implantation and for a month after.

During that time, the mice were found to have a higher number of Bacteroidetes and a lower number of Firmicutes, but when the animals were put on a high-fat, high-sugar diet their proportion of bacteria changed within 24 hours.

There’s no word in published reports on the research about whether going back to a healthy diet could tip the balance of bacteria back.

Mice that had more Firmicutes grew fatter than mice in the same litter who didn’t get the human bacteria, and the mice passed the bacteria on to the next generation, which could be one reason why obese moms (mice or humans) tend to have heavier kids.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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What you eat may change your gut, in ways you don’t expect

If you find that you’re using tobacco or alcohol or drugs to a degree that is unhealthy, you always have the option of simply avoiding them altogether. Not particularly easy, of course, but it gets right to the heart of the problem.

With food, unfortunately, that option is unavailable: stop all eating, you sicken and die.

The challenge then becomes eating within limits and within reason. A lot of that involves what you eat, and how often you eat. But it also involves how you approach eating, the mechanics and attitude involved with eating.

In that area, here are a few ploys that may help you to simply eat less of whatever you eat, whenever you eat.

Eating: it’s not as simple as chew-chew-chew-swallow

• Evaluate your hunger and respond accordingly. Before snacking or noshing, assign an honest rating to how hungry you actually are: not really; a little; moderately; quite a bit; famished. If your hunger ranking is at the low end, you’re not really hungry hungry, you’re more likely bored or depressed or antsy. Grab a piece of fruit and go for a walk or listen to music or otherwise do something you enjoy. If your hunger measures at the high end, try to eat defensively.
• By eating defensively, we mean eating high-volume (as opposed to high-calorie) food, the kind that fills you up. Soups and salads are ideal, being mostly water. Ditto for vegetables and baked potatoes. For entrees, think salmon and chicken breast.
• Eat slowly. This is not headline news to persons with weight-control issues, but just for the record, researchers in Athens have now pinpointed the reason it works: hasty eating impedes the flow of hormones that make us feel full. It seems simplistic, but given our eat-on-the-run lifestyles, hasty eating may have more to do with our national weight gain than we give it credit for.
• Pay attention. We often eat too much of whatever we’re eating just due to momentum; we’re distracted by TV or conversation or our iPhone or reading and we eat more than we need to or even want to without noticing. Focus on your meal and your consumption thereof; you’ll probably eat less, and most likely enjoy it more.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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More tips on how to eat less

Thanks to unhealthy diets and rising rates of obesity, the estrogen in birth control pills and the use of breast implants, the average American woman is now a 36C, while 15 years ago the average woman was a 34B.

The trouble with large breasts

Men reading this article might find that increase in bust size cause for celebration, but most women aren’t singing the praises of bigger bosoms. For one thing, it’s a lot more difficult to move around comfortably when you’re hefting the extra weight larger breasts bring to the party — a pair of D cup breasts weighs between 15 and 23 pounds, and 30 percent of American women now wear a D cup or larger.

Daily activity can be difficult when your breasts are large, and physical activity can be downright uncomfortable. One study found 56 percent of women reported breast pain when jogging, and experts say women will limit their exercise because of that discomfort, which just leads to more weight gain and ultimately even larger breasts.

Bra technology to the rescue

The best solution for dealing with large breasts is, of course, wearing a bra that fits and supports the chest properly. Though women spent $5 billion on bras last year alone, the vast majority of women wear the wrong size, which can be uncomfortable sitting at the office but painful and potentially injury inducing while exercising.

Researchers at the University of Wollongong in Australia used light-emitting diodes to track the movement of breasts inside bras and out while women ran on treadmills. They found breasts can move up to 3 inches vertically during a jog, and women who wear bras that are too small may spill out of their bras entirely.

Wearing a too-small or not sufficiently supportive bra with thin straps can dig into the brachial plexus and cause numbness in the little finger, and large breasts can hit the chest with such force they could break a woman’s clavicle (no kidding).

Another problem with bras is that the most supportive bras also tend to be the least comfortable. So those same Australian researchers are working on the next generation of bras, a smart bra, if you will, that will be able to sense how the wearer is moving and provide more support when, say, you’re running to catch the bus than when you’re sitting at your desk.

For millions of women who find their breasts a pain in the back (or other places), this new technology can’t come quickly enough.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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One result of the obesity epidemic: Bigger breasts

Moments after hearing the news about the red line, the contestants participated in a pop challenge. Although the contestants knew the one-pound advantage didn’t guarantee they’d be safe from the red line, they felt they needed it now more now than ever before.

The “Biggest Loser” contestants raced back and forth from a Velcro board to a bucket. Tennis balls were attached to the Velcro boards above their heads, so they had to jump to fetch the tennis balls, which they carried back to their buckets. Because Allen was the first contestant to transfer all his tennis balls from the board to the bucket, he won the pop challenge and hoped the one-pound advantage would save him at the weigh-in.

Working to beat the red line

After the pop challenge, contestants had time to reflect on the fact that the person who fell below the red line would go home, and Liz feared she’d be that person. As each of the players wondered who would become victim to the red line, Bob and Jillian dropped in.

The players told the trainers about the surprising new twist, and naturally, Bob and Jillian were just as shocked as the “Biggest Loser” contestants were. In fact, Jillian took Bob aside and told him she felt Shay really needed to be there, so she asked Bob to work with her to keep Shay safe. She realized the others deserved to be on the ranch just as much, but she was afraid Shay wouldn’t be able to continue her journey successfully at home. Bob agreed, so the two of them decided they’d train Shay more than they would the others this week.

During the workout in the gym, Danny looked a bit peaked, which concerned Bob; however, Danny assured Bob he was alright. Danny tried to continue his workout, but when he collapsed to the floor, Jillian ordered him to stop. While Danny rested, Jillian continued to work with Shay. Shay shed quite a few tears but managed to make it through the rigorous workout.

After her training session with Shay, Jillian dedicated some of her time to Rebecca, but Rebecca became so frustrated with her workout on the treadmill that she gave up and stormed out of the gym.

Back inside the “Biggest Loser” ranch, Danny sat with Bob and looked through old pictures of himself when he was a whole lot smaller. Danny said the pictures motivated him, and when Bob asked Danny what happened, Danny admitted he gave up on himself but said he’s ready to be thin again.

Jumping through hoops

The contestants headed to their physical challenge. They were all smiles as they walked into a circus scene and soon learned that their challenge involved a circus act. To win immunity, players jumped through their competitors’ hoops. As soon as they jumped through someone’s hoop one hundred times, that person — the one to whom the hoop belonged — was out of the running for immunity. With that in mind, the younger “Biggest Loser” contestants decided to team up against the older contestants and knocked Liz and Allen out first.

Toward the end of the hoop challenge, it came down to Danny, Rudy and Shay. Shay became upset with Rudy when he and Danny worked together to knock her out. She had the impression at the beginning of the challenge that she and Rudy had a “hoop alliance,” so she felt betrayed. Regardless of Shay’s whining about the “hoop alliance,” Rudy continued to work with Danny until Shay was out, and Rudy won immunity.

As the older players slept, the younger ones thought a late-night workout inside the ranch would benefit them at the weigh-in. While Daniel and Shay worked out in the living room, Amanda and Rebecca snatched two spin bikes from the gym and took them to Shay’s room for their late-night workout.

Last chances times two

The next morning Bob joined the Biggest Loser contestants in the kitchen. The players explained the previous day’s challenge to Bob, and Rudy revealed that he’d won immunity and would be safe from the red and yellow lines.

Shay was still upset over the “hoop alliance” but told Bob she didn’t want to discuss it anymore. With that, the players headed to the “Biggest Loser” gym with Bob for what appeared to be a less-brutal last chance workout with trapezes, which hung from the ceiling.

Moments after the players finished their workout with Bob, Jillian showed up and surprised them with another — more intense — last chance workout. Although they were already worn out from their workout with Bob, they put the rest of what energy they had left to participate in Jillian’s workout.

After a second last chance workout, everyone headed to the scales to see who would fall below the red line, as well as which two would fall below the yellow line. Because Rudy won immunity at the last challenge, he weighed in first.

Weighing in and saying goodbye

“This is the best week to have immunity,” Rudy expressed. He lost 8 pounds (2.42 percent).

As Shay stepped onto the scale, Alison reminded her that she was only 17 pounds away from losing 100 pounds, and if she lost the 100 pounds, she’d set a new record for being the fastest woman to reach 100 pounds at the ranch. Shay lost exactly 17 pounds (4.33 percent)!

Amanda lost 5 pounds (2.42 percent).

Rebecca lost 10 pounds (2.42 percent).

Danny needed to lose at least 3 pounds to be the third person during this season of “The Biggest Loser” to lose 100 pounds. Not only did he get his 3 pounds, he lost a whopping 17 pounds, for a total weight loss of 5.11 percent.

Allen lost 10 pounds (4.35 percent).

Liz lost 12 pounds (5.5 percent).

Daniel lost 5 pounds (1.92 percent), which gave him the lowest percentage and sent him sailing below the red line. Before Daniel left the “Biggest Loser” ranch for the second time, Shay thanked him for being her inspiration last season and for helping her on her own journey to weight loss.

After a tearful goodbye with Daniel, Alison announced that Shay and Amanda had fallen below the yellow line. If Allen hadn’t won the one-pound advantage, it would’ve been him sitting next to Amanda in the elimination room instead of Shay.

Everyone went back inside the ranch to decide who to send home this week. As usual, Shay and Amanda asked their competitors to allow them more time on the ranch, and in the end, the deciding vote came down to Rudy. Unfortunately, Rudy voted to send Shay home, which I’m sure Bob and Jillian won’t be happy about when they discover the results.

Home updates

When Daniel first went to “The Biggest Loser” ranch last season, he weighed 454 pounds, and he was happy to publicize the he’s lost a grand total of 215 pounds thus far! Though Daniel was grateful for his many blessings, he felt sorry for David, his partner from last season.

After visiting David, Daniel learned that he’d not only gained the weight he’d lost last season back, but he put on even more. David told Daniel he felt his weight wasn’t as important as other things right now. This broke Daniel’s heart, but there wasn’t much he could do if David wasn’t willing to help himself.

As for Shay, The Biggest Loser didn’t reveal how much additional weight she’d lost since she left the ranch, but they did show a clip of her saying her goal is to lose 213 pounds by December.

What are your thoughts about David, and do you think Shay will reach her goal weight by December? Sound off in the comments area below.

(By Misti Sandefur for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Biggest Loser season 8, episode 9: Double elimination

The New York Times did some reading and found that, among the provisions to provide more affordable health insurance to more Americans, there are also regulations that will require nutrition labels on snacks sold in vending machines and the food available in chain restaurants nationwide.

Labels for vending machines

The vending machine provision would require machine operators who own more than 20 machines to post calorie counts for the snacks inside “in close proximity” to the item or to the selection button for that item.

This would make it possible for people to see, for example, that the granola bar has as many calories as the candy bar, allowing them to make healthier choices if they desire to. Apparently the bill only requires disclosure of calorie information; if you want to know the fat or sugar content of a snack, you’ll have to buy it.

The National Automatic Merchandising Association says it would cost the vending machine industry about $56 million to get ready to meet the requirements of the bill.

Restaurant nutrition disclosure

The measure about restaurants says that all chain restaurants with more than 20 locations nationwide would have to provide calorie counts for regular menu items in a “clear and conspicuous manner” on menus or, say, next to a food in a cafeteria or buffet line.

The restaurants would also have to make available information about the meals’ fat, cholesterol, sodium and carbohydrate content, but this information wouldn’t have to be on menus.

The National Restaurant Association says it’s in favor of the regulation, because having a nationwide rule that applies to all chain restaurants is better than having different rules in different states or even different cities, as is the case today.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Nutrition labeling part of healthcare bill

The human body is about 60 percent water in adult males and 55 percent in adult females.

When I look at all the possible ways to replenish that water volume in our bodies, the choices may be limitless in variety, but we all know, when it comes down to picking the best thing to drink, the number one hydrator has always been and still is water! Now it seems that water is not simply pure water, as it may have a variety of contaminants. I’m sure that all of us want our drinking water to be clean and safe.

Our nation’s public drinking water supply is regulated under The Safe Drinking Water Act, originally passed by Congress in 1974. The act, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency, set standards for drinking water quality. They also oversee the governments and suppliers that implement the standards.

The EPA’s primary standards are legally enforceable and limit the level of contaminants in drinking water in order to protect public health. However, with our aging water infrastructure, and many of us having private wells as our home’s primary source of water, there are obvious concerns over having safe drinking water. Ideally, it would be advantageous to have a home system that both filters and purifies our water.

Enter the Restore Clean Water System

Made by HoMedics, Restore®, is a complete water purification system. Utilizing the germ-killing benefits of UVC light, Restore combines UV Clean technology to remove bacteria, viruses and microbial cysts with a filtration system to reduce heavy metals, chlorine (taste and odor) and some industrial and agricultural pollutants.

What the Restore system includes

A dual-process system
Step 1: Filtration — Reduces heavy metals, chlorine (taste and odor) and some industrial and agricultural pollutants.

Step 2: Purification — UV Clean Technology purifies and removes: 99.9999 percent of bacteria, 99.99 percent of viruses and 99.95 percent of microbial cysts.

Restore claims

• A state-of-the-art technology comparable to many installed systems with none of the hassle
• Removes many bacteria and viruses
• Delivers cleaner, great-tasting water right from the tap
• Cheaper than bottled water
• California certified for microbiological water purification, a first for a water pitcher utilizing UV technology, and Gold Seal Certified to NSF standards by the Water Quality Association
• BPA free

System includes
8 cup capacity pitcher with built-in UV lamp, replaceable filter, 1 power adapter.

Trying out the system

Homedics was kind enough to provide me with a free Restore Clean Water System! The water supply at my home comes from a well in the front yard, and I have always been happy with the water from our Florida aquifer.

Unlike at Christmas time, when the three scariest words are “some assembly required,” the Restore System was very easy to put together and prepare for its first use. It comes with an excellent instruction and information booklet that barely made a light tap when dropped on the counter.

I initially conducted a blind taste test using untreated well water and the now-purified restored water. I correctly identified the new and improved water! It tasted a little crisper and cleaner, but not terribly different, as I think my original water always tasted fine.

Final thoughts

I like the Restore Clean Water System! It is very easy to use. It is not too expensive. The system is well designed and constructed. It does not take very long to refill and run. Perhaps a larger volume than 8 cups would be a good idea for a family with children. I don’t know if Homedics has that as a future plan design.

If you are considering a counter-top home water filtration and purification system, I think the Homedics Restore Clean Water System is a very good one!

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Dr. J takes a look at the Restore Clean Water System

How the research worked

The study, published in the journal Endocrinology, involved feeding a group of female mice a high-fat diet, then breeding them with normal-weight males. Their babies tended to be heavier than the offspring of normal-weight moms, but that was because they were also 10 to 15 percent longer than the normal-weight mice offspring.

When the babies were fed a normal diet and then bred — some couples having two high-fat moms, some with one high-fat and one normal-diet mom — the grandchildren of the mice who’d had the high-fat diet were still longer than the descendants of the normal-weight mice, and the trait passed down in both maternal and paternal lines.

What this might mean for humans

It’s certainly possible that a similar mechanism is happening in humans, which might explain some of the growth the human population on a whole has enjoyed in the past century and a half or so when more food — and more fatty food — has become widely available.

But there are a lot of other factors that play into a person’s height, including genetics, their own access to healthy foods, exercise, living conditions and general health. So even if a study of this sort could be conducted in humans, it would be a lot more difficult to say the grandmother’s diet played a role in the height of the offspring.

Why eating for height isn’t a good idea

We can’t imagine that anyone would read this story and think, “Great, now I can eat whatever I want and my grandchild will be an NBA star.” But should that thought cross your mind, you should know that both the moms and the offspring in the high-fat diet group had reduced insulin sensitivity, which puts them at risk of developing diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease and obesity.

As researchers note, all those potential health problems aren’t worth the hope of being a few inches taller.

(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

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Fat-loving moms may have taller children