(CC) dogulove/Flickr

Maybe not, but does the answer really matter?

It may be premature or simply dead wrong to call it an argument, so let’s just say that a “discussion” has begun among health and nutrition experts regarding the calorie amounts listed on food labels. On the one hand there is a school of thought which contends that, “There are a number of reasons to question the accuracy, and even the usefulness, of those numbers.” To which the pro-calorie crowd responds, more or less, “So?”

Here are those positions in greater detail. First, the calorie skeptics.

• The calorie amounts listed are usually less than the actual calorie content. One New York Times reporter found that four out of five take-out items were off by as much as 200 calories.
• The old Atwater system we use to measure calories in food items hasn’t been seriously updated in 100 years. For example, it assigns proteins and carbohydrates with the same number of calories per gram, although we now know that the body metabolizes the two forms of food in different ways and with different net energy results.
• The calorie counts on processed foods are determined by adding up the calorie counts of the individual raw ingredients, but the very nature of processing is to make those ingredients more easily digested and their calories more efficiently absorbed by the consumer than in their natural form.

Now, a word from the other side.

• The Times reporter’s “research” was based on just five items, a preposterously tiny sample size, and they included a banana nut muffin and a Starbucks Frappuccino, two items that anyone interested in calorie limitation wouldn’t go near to begin with. This principle holds for fast food restaurants as well: Calorie-conscious persons who do patronize them are savvy enough to automatically add 10 or 20 percent to the posted counts when considering their order.
• The body does metabolize different food items differently, and each body metabolizes any given food item somewhat differently from other bodies, but how much hair-splitting do you want to get bogged down with, here? Yes, there are discrepancies, but they aren’t so great as to render the stated amount irrelevant. They give the consumer at least a rough idea of the calories involved. Pi isn’t exactly 3.14 either, but it’s close enough for most practical purposes.
• When all is said and done, calorie counts on menus and product labels are far better than nothing, and at present, we don’t have a handy alternative. Even if items A, B and C each understate their calories by ten percent or so, we’re still provided with a fairly accurate measure of how they compare with one another. If you have to choose between them, that information is valuable.

I hope that I’ve stated each side’s position fairly and accurately, but in case I haven’t, there’s always a fail-safe option for persons concerned about calorie intake: avoid situations where you have to rely on the accuracy of calorie counts on menus or labels by preparing your own meals and snacks. When it comes to the food you eat, ultimately you are the only source you can absolutely trust.

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

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Can Food Industry Calorie Listings Be Trusted? is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

© Dudarev Mikhail – Fotolia.com

Want to lower your risk of diabetes? Take a walk after every meal you eat. Loretta DiPietro of the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services recently conducted research and discovered that older adults who took a 15-minute walk after eating their meals had better blood sugar levels and thus lowered their chances for obesity.

The key, according to DiPietro, is the timing. Three shorter walks taken 30 minutes after each meal were more effective than a single, longer morning or evening walk. “This is among the first studies to really address the timing of the exercise with regard to its benefit for blood sugar control,” she explained.

DiPietro warns, though, that people must walk daily to reap the diabetes-decreasing benefits. “Committing to do this with someone would work best,” she suggested. “It can be coupled with things like walking the dog or running errands.”

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Post-Meal Walks Linked to Lower Risk of Diabetes is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

Photo credit: Fast Company

Pop quiz: What regions in America have the highest populations of people who eat fruits and vegetables? The Centers for Disease Control just released a map with this data, and the results are somewhat unsurprising: California and Oregon are up near the top of the list, while North and South Dakota, Iowa, Louisiana and Mississippi are near the bottom.

States on the East and West Coast, with their abundance of farmers’ markets, healthy food retailers, and access to fruits and vegetables, tended to have more citizens that made produce a part of their daily diets.

Fast Company rightly points out a key flaw in the research, however: “The report doesn’t define what a serving of fruit or vegetables looks like. Does the limp little tomato slice in a McDonald’s burger count as ‘vegetable intake’? How does that compare to a green juice packed with cucumber, carrot and beets?”

How does your state measure up in the daily produce consumption department?

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

What US States Are Best at Eating Their Veggies? is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

1. Cancer Groups Lead “Worst Charities” List

A list of “America’s 50 Worst Charities” compiled by watchdog journalists and based on percentage of donations actually spent on financial aid, is dominated by those ostensibly devoted to cancer victims, with five of the worst eleven, and ten overall.

2. Movie Poster Shows Slimmer Melissa McCarthy

Actress Melissa McCarthy’s face appears much slimmer in a promotional movie poster in the UK for the film “The Heat,” also starring Sandra Bullock.

3. Eyeball Licking Spreads Pinkeye in Japan

Eyeball licking (also known as worming or oculolinctus) is spreading pinkeye among preteens in Japan.

4. Hands-Free Devices and Driving Are Unsafe

Using hands-free devices for talking and texting while driving is unsafe says new study issued by the AAA.

5. Lego Faces Are Getting More Angry

Lego has been adding more angry faces to its mini-figures and decreasing the number of happy faces, says robot expert Dr. Christoph Bartneck, the acting director of the University of Canterbury’s Human Interface Technology Laboratory in New Zealand.

6. It’s Better to Meet Your Spouse Online

Science has spoken: Meeting your spouse online can lead to a more successful marriage.

7. McDonald’s Cuts Healthy But Lagging Salads

McDonald’s, which began adding entree salads to its menu ten years ago in order to create a healthier public image, has announced that it will eliminate two of them from the menu due to the fact that only 2-3% of their customers were buying them.

8. Walk After Meals to Lower Diabetes Risk

Short bouts of exercise after meals control blood sugar in older adults better than one bout of longer exercise.

9. Belviq Weight-Loss Drug Finally Available

Belviq (lorcaserin hydrochloride) weight-loss prescription drug is now available to some patients with a body mass index (BMI) of more than 30, or a BMI of 27 with a weight-related medical condition like type 2 diabetes.

10. Antihistamine Use and Pregnancy Complications

Women who take antihistamines for severe morning sickness are more likely to have adverse pregnancy outcomes says new study.

11. NYC Diabetes Death Rate Reaches All-Time High

New York City’s diabetes-related death rate reaches an all-time high says the NYC Health Department. The city reacts …

12. Old Concussions Slow Recovery from New Ones

Teens and young adults ages 11-22 who have suffered more than one concussion in the past take twice as long to recover from subsequent blows to the head, and those who experienced a concussion in the past year take three times as long.

13. Modeling Agency Recruits at Anorexia Clinic

Scouts from what doctors describe as one of Sweden’s premier modeling agencies have been lingering outside of that country’s largest eating disorder clinic, attempting to recruit strolling anorexia patients as young as 14 as potential fashion models.

14. Asparagus Lowered Blood Pressure in Rats

Asparagus has been proven to lower blood pressure in rats. In the study, rats with high blood pressure were fed a diet made up of 5 percent asparagus.

15. Vegetarian Men May Live Longer

Vegetarians, particularly men, are less likely to die from any cause compared to meat-eaters, concludes a five-year study.

16. Drugs from TN Specialty Pharmacy Contaminated

Health officials have found that a Tennessee pharmacy that compounds the steroid methylprednisolone acetate has problems with fungal and bacterial contamination after reports of skin abscesses in people who received injections.

17. Cancer Is 115,000 Years Older Than We Knew

Evidence of cancerous tumors, heretofore not found in human remains more than 4,000 years old, have been discovered in a Neanderthal specimen more than 120,000 years old, when many of the factors associated with cancer today did not exist.

(By CalorieLab editors)

Lab Notes: Cancer Groups Lead “Worst Charities” List; Movie Poster Shows Slimmer Melissa McCarthy is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) Smabs Sputzer/Flickr

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink” may well be the oldest English proverb that is still in regular use today. It first appeared in the Old English Homilies in 1175 as, “Hwa is thet mei thet hors wettrien the him self nule drinken.”

“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” literally means that you can help the horse by showing him where the water is, but it is up to the horse itself to decide that it will actually take the drink.

In our general usage the meaning is usually thought to be, “You can show people the way to do things, but you can’t force them to act,” or, “You can give someone the opportunity to learn or to do something, but you can never force him to accept that opportunity,” or, “You can offer something to someone, like good advice, but you cannot make them take it,” or, “You can help someone as much as you like, but if they do not try or do not help themselves, then they will not succeed.”

I suppose in many ways, writing this column is my leading a horse to water. In that vein, I imagine there are many possibilities as to how it will all play out.

I can lead a horse to water, and sometimes they may be thirsty.

I can lead a horse to water, and… why are they following ME?

I can lead a horse to water, but it’s usually a bad idea to turn your back on a horse.

I can lead a horse to water, but the water better not be too deep.

I can lead a horse to water, but even in the abundance of water, a foolish horse is thirsty.

I can lead a horse to water, but some horses just like being dehydrated.

I can lead a horse to water, but some horses would just rather complain about being thirsty.

I can lead a horse to water, but some horses just want to be a thirst in progress.

I can lead a French horse to water, but they know all too well that water is for bathing, wine is for drinking!

I can lead my horse to water, and he has lived a long and healthy life because he has always been one to drink the water!

May your life be long and healthy as well!

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water, but You Can’t Make It Drink is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

© Blend Images – Fotolia.com

BPA linked to obesity in preteen girls

Parents, there are even more reasons to avoid the chemical bisphenol A, better known as BPA: a Chinese study published yesterday in PLoS One reveals that preteen girls with higher BPA levels as measured in their urine were two times as likely as those with lower-than-average levels to be obese. This correlation only existed with girls between 9 and 12 years of age — not older girls or boys, according to WebMD.

“Human studies are starting to confirm animal studies that show BPA can disrupt energy storage and energy metabolism,” said study author Dr. De-Kun Li of the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute and the Stanford School of Medicine.

Skeptics note that BPA is stored in body fat, so overweight children will naturally have higher levels of the chemical in their bodies, and warn that more research is needed to create a definitive link between BPA and childhood obesity.

Premature birth rates increase when the expectant mother is overweight

Yesterday’s Journal of the American Medical Association included a study out of Sweden of 1.5 million deliveries that found overweight pregnant women are more likely than their normal-weight counterparts to give birth prematurely. “The researchers found that the risk of extremely premature (22 to 27 weeks), very premature (28 to 31 weeks) and moderately premature (32 to 36 weeks) deliveries increased with a woman’s BMI,” write MedicineNet in its coverage of the study.

Premature births are the No. 1 cause of long-term disability, infant mortality and neonatal illness, according to the study’s Stockholm-based researchers.

Summer skin disasters, and how to fight them

Summer’s rising temperatures make it more likely for us to suffer not just sunburns, heat rash and blisters, but also athlete’s foot, rosacea, acne and razor burn. Recognizing these skin conditions and knowing how to treat them is essential for people of all ages.

Medication can also affect how your body reacts to sun exposure. “Common medications such as ibuprofen, naproxen and diuretics can make you more sensitive to sunlight so you may burn more easily,” said Joseph L. Jorizzo, M.D., a dermatology professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Nibbles: BPA and Childhood Obesity, Overweight Women and Premature Births, and Summer Skin Care Disasters is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) laRuth/Flickr

Before age turns that Boom into Bust

Being a member of the Baby Boom demographic, I think I’m qualified to hand out some advice to those who also inhabit my particular age group. And so I intend to. As follows: If you are a Boomer, and you haven’t been particularly concerned with things such as your weight or exercise or general health in the past, this is probably your last decent chance to do so. Stall, procrastinate or engage in denial any longer, and you’re going to find yourself (1) with health problems, and (2) in a long, slow-moving clinic or hospital line with other people with health problems.

As far as point (1) is concerned, we’re simply talking about an inevitable fact of life, or at least of six decades worth of physical aging. Things are going to wear out or run down or go wrong as your mileage adds up. As for point (2), consider the following bits of data. Already, some 40,300,000 of Americans are 65 or older; that’s 13 percent of the total population being subject to the medical reality of point (1). And these are the good old days; by the year 2030, when the last of the Boomers has turned 65, that number will have topped 72 million.

The math is both clear and grim: we’re approaching the day when one in every five Americans will be susceptible to the medical problems of advancing age. Unless there is a dramatic surge in the number of practicing gerontologists, this will mean more and more elders needing the services of a relatively fixed number of specialists in their medical treatment. Better call for that appointment now.

And here’s another statistic to chew on: If you are typical, you’ll spend almost twice as much on health care annually after age 65 than you spent from ages 45 to 64, and compared to all US adults under 65, you’ll spend three times as much. If you’re smart, you’ll try not to become typical.

If you already have medical problems — and nearly 80 percent of American seniors have at least one chronic health issue — you probably already have a health care provider nagging you about your diet and level of physical activity. Thus my target with this post is the Boomer or near-Boomer whose default response to the above is, “Yeah, but I’ve always been in good health, this warning really doesn’t apply to me.”

So, so wrong. You are exactly the type of person who stands to gain the most from deciding to take your health and lifestyle patterns seriously in hand from now on. That’s because it’s not too late for you to avoid those long lines and crowded facilities and soaring costs that many of your peers wish to God they didn’t have to deal with, just as they regret not having taken better care of themselves when they were still in good health.

Right now, one out of every two Americans over 65 has two or more ongoing health problems, one in four is obese, one in five has diabetes, and six in ten have arthritis. If you are not in any of those categories, you a genuinely blessed, not only with good health, but with the opportunity to begin an effective program to stay that way. You have time, but it’s running out.

If you could eat healthier than you do, please begin doing so. If you could get more physical exercise, please begin doing so. If you smoke, or drink excessively, or indulge other bad habits, well, you know the drill. If you’re on the far side of middle age and reasonably healthy, this is especially important, because the thing about good health is that while it’s not always easy to maintain it, it’s a damn sight harder to regain it if you lose it.

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

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Attention Baby Boomers: Announcing Your Last Chance to Shape Up is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) Ewan Bellamy/Flickr

I was attending a large surgery meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa. At the gala finale dinner, I found myself sitting between the South African Surgeon General and his lovely wife. He was boasting to me about how they were teaching general dentists in the rural areas to repair broken jaws. Approaching the subject with my usual tact, honed during my days as Rambo psychiatrist in medical school, I offered, “That’s great, but if you really want to help your citizens with dental problems, give each one a toothbrush and teach them how to use it!”

His wife and I got along quite well that evening.

A recent report — part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2010 study and published in the Journal of Dental Research — stressed that serious dental problems affect billions of people across the globe.

The report, which was authored by Professor Wagner Marcenes of Queen Mary, University of London with an international research team, shows that oral disease affects as many as 3.9 billion people worldwide, making it the most common of all the 291 major diseases and injuries assessed by the GBD 2010 study. Thirty-five percent of the world population suffers from untreated cavities in permanent teeth.

“There are close to 4bn people in the world who suffer from untreated oral health conditions that cause toothache and prevent them from eating and possibly sleeping properly, which is a disability,” wrote Professor Marcenes. “This total does not even include small cavities or mild gum diseases, so we are facing serious problems in the population’s oral health.”

These debilitating oral conditions accounted for an average health loss (years lived with the disability), of 224 years per 100,000 people, which was higher than 25 out of the 28 categories of cancer which were assessed in the GBD 2010 study.

The report also found that this global burden of oral conditions is undergoing a shift from severe tooth loss towards severe gum disease and untreated cavities. In addition, the global burden from oral diseases increased 20 percent between 1990 and 2010, while at the same time there was a reduction of 0.5 percent for all other conditions combined. This increase in oral disease was attributed to population growth and aging.

The largest increases in the burden of oral diseases were in Eastern (52 percent), Central (51 percent) and Sub-Saharan Africa, and Oceania (48 percent).

According to Professor Marcenes, “Tooth loss is often the final result when preventive or conservative treatments for tooth decay or gum disease fail or are unavailable. It is likely that current dental services are coping better to prevent tooth loss than in the past but major efforts are needed to prevent the occurrence and development of gum diseases and tooth decay. Ironically, the longer a person keeps their teeth the greater the pressure on services to treat them.”

Professor Marcenes concluded, “Our findings are set to shake up the setting of health priorities around the world, providing an unparalleled amount of up-to-date, comparable data on the diseases, risk factors, disabilities, and injuries facing populations. The findings of the GBD 2010 study highlighted that an urgent organized social response to oral health problems is needed. This must deal with a wide array of health care and public health priorities for action.”

And in my opinion as well as those of the wife of the Surgeon General (S.A)., daily brushing of our teeth is a very good place to start!

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Serious Dental Problems Affect Billions of People Across the Globe is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

1. Yoga Stimulates Brain Function

Just 20 minutes of yoga greatly improved participants’ performance on brain function tests.

2. Chinese Man, 66, Learns He’s Really a Woman

A man in China went to the doctor for abdominal swelling and learned that he was, in fact, a woman and that the swelling was due to a cyst on his ovary.

3. Joblessness Boosts White Women’s Death Rate

White women with poor educations are 66% more likely to die in any given year than their well-educated peers because they’re more likely to be smokers, and they probably don’t have a job. No other factors, including age and income, really matter.

4. Artificial Sweeteners Raise Blood Sugar

Artificial sweeteners raised blood sugar and insulin levels in study participants say Washington University researchers. But how – and whether or not it’s harmful – remains a mystery.

5. Subway As Caloric As McD’s When Kids Order

UCLA researchers report that when people aged 12 to 21 order their own meals at Subway or McDonald’s, the Subway sandwiches they choose contain an average of 784 calories, which is actually 212 more than the 572 average in their McDonald’s selections.

6. Yoga Pants No Longer See-Through

Previously recalled women’s black luon yoga pants are now back on the market with changes to correct the sheerness that allowed others too great a view.

7. Oral Sex and Throat Cancer

Michael Douglas made news this week when he said that oral cancer may have given him throat cancer fueling the conversation about the HPV virus.

8. Doughnut Breakfast Sandwich Goes National

Dunkin’ Donuts has added a doughnut breakfast sandwich to its national menu.

9. What Your Movie Snack Says About You

Snacking on Junior Mints during the movie means you’re more likely to be the intellectual type, while those who pick Peanut M&Ms are easy-going, say researchers.

10. Change Your Lifestyle: Postpone Death

A new study from Johns Hopkins University researchers points to four lifestyle changes that will reduce your risk of heart disease and increase longevity.

(By CalorieLab editors)

Lab Notes: Yoga Stimulates Brain Function; Chinese Man, 66, Learns He’s Really a Woman is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

© Jacek Chabraszewski – Fotolia

Fun fact: People will choose larger portions of foods that are labeled as “healthy,” even if said foods are high in calories. A new study from France shows that we may not always be aware of caloric content.

“Foods are marketed as being healthier for a reason, because food producers believe, and they correctly believe, that those labels will influence us to eat their products and perhaps eat more of their products,” said Dr. Cliodhna Foley Nolan, director of Human Health and Nutrition at Safefood in Ireland.

Safefood, a government agency, commissioned the study, which was published in the International Journal of Obesity. Since portions have grown to such large sizes, Safefood wanted to find out if labeling foods as “healthy” had an influence on how much people eat. The study included 186 adult participants who were asked to serve themselves food from two different bowls — a “standard” coleslaw and a “healthier” coleslaw.

However, the healthy coleslaw had just about the same amount of calories as the standard coleslaw. A 100 grams of the healthier version was 224 calories, while the standard had 223 calories.

In addition to serving larger potions, participants of the study also underestimated how many calories were in a serving of the healthier coleslaw, estimating that it had about 100 calories less than it did it reality. However, their estimations for the amount of calories in the standard coleslaw were much more accurate.

What researchers say is happening is people are assuming that because a food might be a healthier option in one way, it is healthier in all ways. However, “healthier” foods don’t always mean lower calories.

“We think that these kinds of marketing means… of labeling things as being healthier, that it gives us a certain license to overeat and it can be dangerous,” Foley Nolan said.

What people can do when shopping or ordering food is to look at all the nutritional information and make decisions based on the actual data, rather than what is being printed on the front of a box.

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

New Study Shows People Eat Larger Portions of Foods Marked ‘Healthy’ is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) Louise Docker/Flickr

It’s a four-letter word beginning with F

There are a plenty of things to blame our current national obesity wave on, and I came up with a raft of them just for my e-book, “115 Reasons Why It’s Not Your Fault.” But the most fundamental reason for our great girth growth may also be the simplest: there’s just way too much food out there these days.

That’s certainly true in comparison to the food situation at around the start of America’s great weight gain, back in 1970 or so. Consider how things have changed since then. We’ve gone from a relative handful of fast-food restaurants to tens of thousands now. The number of full service restaurants is also way up, as is the size of a typical portion served. Even the plates are 20 percent larger than back then.

Meanwhile, supermarkets, once roughly the size of a baseball diamond, have expanded to become as big as soccer fields, and the number of food products on their shelves has soared from a few hundred into ten times that. Of course, for those disinclined to bother with food preparation, any supermarket worth the name now boasts its own bakery and deli. Too rushed for a supermarket line? No problem. There are countless convenience stores at your service. For that matter, you can now buy all the food you like… at gas stations.

All these food purveyors have no trouble filling their shelves or plates, of course, given the stunning efficiency and productivity with which corporate mega-farms have vastly increased their yields of everything from corn (as in high fructose syrup) to potatoes (as in chips and fries).

To put some hard numbers onto this explosion of edibles, the Department of Agriculture notes that in 1970 our national food supply provided us with an average of 2,086 calories per person per day. That was already more calories more than any of us really needed, but it was a good 20 percent less than the 2,534 calories each of us currently has at our disposal. That’s a per capita increase of 448 calories daily, or the equivalent of a second lunch. It’s also the equivalent of almost 50 pounds of added weight per year to a typical adult.

But our obesity issue doesn’t spring just from how much food there is, but where it is. Note the wording on my basic premise: “too much food out there.” The words “out there” are just as significant as the “too much” part. That’s because we consume much more of our food outside the home today than we did two generations ago. Here’s another interesting USDA stat: the average adult now eats out almost five times each week, in the process consuming foods that are fatty or oily or deep fried to a much greater extent than meals prepared at home.

Again, hard numbers: in the late 70s, we consumed about five or six percent of our total calories outside the home; today, we take in a good 20 percent. Just one restaurant or fast food meal per week can add two pounds to the average consumer, and as noted above, we now average about five such meals.

It would be fairly easy, not to mention fun, to take all this as evidence of a massive conspiracy designed to fatten up the American public to the point of endangering the national health. In reality, “conspiracy” is too strong a term. But “endangering” isn’t. The fact is that the food industry is totally geared to get you to buy as much of its product line as possible, and it has become supremely capable in this regard. It only cares about the health consequences of its success insofar as its customers begin to care about them and to shop and eat accordingly.

Until and unless that occurs on a conspicuously massive scale, each of us is on his or her own as we make our way daily through the minefield of Questionable Food Choices that our landscape has become. If weight loss or control is your goal, it’s up to you to be aware that a battle for your waistline is being waged, and that if you don’t consciously and diligently take meaningful countermeasures, such as serious calorie monitoring, portion limits, and impulse resistance, you’re toast, diet-wise.

Whether it’s that second doughnut, super sized fries, extra scoop of rocky road or bag of chips by the cash register, it’s you versus them, and when they win, you lose. Good luck, and keep your guard up.

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

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

The Secret Is Out: Why America Got So Fat is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) misteraitch/Flickr

1. Stop saying you are a work in progress unless there is actual progress. Put your emphasis on the work part and there will be progress.
2. Stop saying the same negative things about yourself. We move in the direction of our dominant thoughts. Make your dominant thoughts positive ones about yourself.
3. Stop living in denial. If you are in trouble, you will not get out of trouble until you take action. The Nile may flow, but denial will not.
4. Stop deluding yourself. Those false beliefs of yours need to be discarded — can, shred, or garbage disposal them.
5. Stop waiting for tomorrow. If it hasn’t come by today, it is not coming. You need to go find it.
6. Stop saying what you are not. Put your energy into saying what you are. Better yet, put your energy into becoming something.
7. Stop saying what your problem is without doing anything about it, like that will make it go away.
8. Stop saying what you can’t do. Do something. Learn something. You can do most things if you take the time to learn the skill. If there is something that challenges you, learn to do it. Saying you can’t is rarely the truth, you just don’t want to.
9. Stop saying you are trying when you are not. Climbing halfway up a mountain is trying. Standing at the bottom and looking up is not.
10. Stop doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. What you have been doing is not working. Do something different, not the same behaviors that do not work. Sure, if we flip a coin enough times it might land on its edge and balance there, but do we really want to play those odds with our life?

Whatever the area of your life, the answers may be found in what to stop!

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

10 Things to Stop if We Want Our Life to Go is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

© Andrei Tsalko – Fotolia.com

Scientists have found one big reason why high blood pressure has been increasing in children — the use of plastic. A new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics says this may be due to chemicals called phthalates, which are found in everyday plastic items.

The research was conducted by New York University’s Langone Medical Centre and studied almost 3,000 children. The chemicals in question are found in items like plastic cutlery, plastic cups, packaging for food and beverages, toys like beach balls, and even in some types of flooring.

“Phthalates can inhibit the function of cardiac cells and cause oxidative stress that compromises the health of arteries. But no one has explored the relationship between phthalate exposure and heart health in children,” said Leonardo Trasande, lead author of the study and an associate professor of pediatrics at NYU. “We wanted to examine the link between phthalates and childhood blood pressure in particular given the increase in elevated blood pressure in children and the increasing evidence implicating exposure to environmental exposures in early development of disease.”

While high blood pressure is an issue usually experienced by those over the age of 50, 14 percent of today’s obese teenagers are finding themselves in the same boat. Trasande says these findings are important because the exposure to phthalates can be controlled.

“Our study underscores the need for policy initiatives that limit exposure to disruptive environmental chemicals, in combination with dietary and behavioural interventions geared toward protecting cardiovascular health,” he said.

Does this research make you think twice about your use of plastic goods?

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Plastic Causes Increase in Childhood High Blood Pressure is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

© Jacek Chabraszewski – Fotolia.com

The future of food is upon us! NASA recently approved a grant for a 3D pizza printer, which could potentially help with food shortage and malnutrition. The mastermind of this project is Anjan Contractor of Systems & Materials Research Corp.

“Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life,” Contractor said. “The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years.”

Contractor is a mechanical engineer who has the ultimate goal of having these 3D food printers help provide nutritious meals to people all over the world. The meals would be created layer by layer with the help of printer cartridges made of powder and oil. Not only would this idea help end food hunger, it would also decrease food waste because the powder used in the cartridge systems would have a shelf life of up to 30 years.

“I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can’t supply 12 billion people sufficiently,” Contractor said. “So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food.”

The 3D pizza printer would work by printing out a layer of dough, which would actually be getting baked as it was being printed. Then, a layer of tomato sauce will be printed, which will be a combination of tomato powder mixed with water and oil. Finally, the pizza will get its toppings, a layer of protein that can be either animal or plant-based.

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

The Future of Food: 3D Pizza Printer in Development is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

1. Yes, Prancercise Lady Is for Real

A new (but really old) pony-inspired exercise sensation is rocking the Internet: “Prancercise: A Fitness Workout.”

2. Frozen Berry Blend Linked to Hepatitis A

Townsend Farms Organic Antioxidant Blend is linked to a five-state outbreak of acute hepatitis A.

3. Minnesota the Healthiest State for Seniors

The state with the healthiest residents aged 65 or older is Minnesota, followed by Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Iowa. The least healthy states for seniors are Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma and in last place, Mississippi.

4. Genetically Modified Wheat Found in Oregon

Unapproved, genetically modified wheat was found on an Oregon farm. How it got there remains a mystery.

5. Sharks More Valuable in Ocean Than in Soup

Shark ecotourism worldwide is expected to rise to $780 million during the next 20 years, while global shark fisheries have experienced steady decline.

6. Mom’s Weight-Loss Surgery Helps Future Kids

Children born after a mother’s weight-loss surgery may be healthier than children born before the mother had surgery, suggests a new study.

7. Losing Weight Reduces Psoriasis Symptoms

Losing weight may reduce the symptoms of psoriasis say medical experts.

8. Twin Cities Are America’s Healthiest

The healthiest and fittest cities in the U.S. are Minneapolis-St. Paul, Washington, D.C., Boston, Portland OR, Denver, and San Francisco. The unhealthiest, from number 46 down, are Detroit, Birmingham, Memphis, Louisville and Oklahoma City.

9. More Kids Eating Marijuana-Laced Foods

With the relaxation of Colorado’s marijuana laws, more kids are accidentally ingesting marijuana-laced edibles. Something needs to be done, says one medical expert

10. Schizophrenia-Like Symptoms Treated in Mice

Mice that were genetically engineered to overexpress a protein that lead to symptoms of schizophrenia were successfully treated when the gene was inhibited, according to results from a new study.

11. Rescuers Save Newborn Stuck in Sewer Pipe

A newborn baby boy, rescued from a sewage pipe, is reported to be doing well in a Chinese hospital, say authorities.

12. Over 60s Report Growing Memory Loss

One out of every 8 Americans aged 60 or older reports experiencing increasing episodes of confusion or memory loss, and nearly half of those in the Baby Boomer age group, 60 to 64, say it’s messing with their lives, versus just 38% of those over 85.

13. Statins Raise Diabetes Risk

Patients treated with statin drugs atorvastatin, rosuvastatin or simvastatin may have an increased risk of new onset diabetes compared to patients treated with pravastatin.

14. Overweight Are More Likely to Switch Doctors

Overweight patients switch doctors more often than normal-weight patients, find researchers.

15. Experts: US School Kids Get Too Little PE

An Institute of Medicine report recommends that U.S. schools declare PE to be a core subject along with math and English, and provide at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day for students. Only 30% of students now attend PE classes daily.

16. Diners Way Underestimate Fast-Food Calories

Adults, teenagers, and even parents of young children grossly underestimate the amount of calories in their or their kids’ orders when eating at fast-food restaurants, and one-fourth of them underestimate the amount by 500 or more calories.

(By CalorieLab editors)

Lab Notes: Yes, Prancercise Lady Is for Real; Frozen Berry Blend Linked to Hepatitis A is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) navets/Flickr

Especially any crazy requirements that the food be nutritious

A shout-out to Mr. Patrick Mustain, who in a recent article for Scientific American online has provided us with a snapshot of Big Cereal with its pants down. Specifically, it’s a glimpse of the kind of dietary logic embraced by the likes of General Mills. That logic, if you can genuinely call it such, boils down to: “Eating mostly healthy and nutritious foods is a terrible idea that would bankrupt the country and you couldn’t really do it anyway.”

Here’s the background, as provided by brother Mustain. Four years ago, Congress ordained that a task force be organized to develop advertising standards for foods marketed to children. Called the Inter-agency Working Group (IWG), it was composed of heavy hitters in the field of childhood nutrition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Trade Commission, among others. They were specifically chosen for their expertise in child nutrition and general health, as well as psychology, education and marketing.

This being a government project, it took two years for the group to issue a definitive report. The report included a basic set of guidelines for food items advertised to children. One of the guidelines was refreshingly specific. It said that any food item marketed to kids should “contain at least 50 percent by weight one or more of the following: fruit; vegetable; whole grains; fat-free or low-fat milk or yogurt; fish; extra lean meat or poultry; eggs; nuts and seeds; or beans.”

When the suits at General Mills saw this list, and noted that it did not include, say, “empty, calorie-rich processed carbohydrates,” or almost anything else they sold, were aghast. They went so far as to express their dismay in a letter and extended commentary which they posted on the FTC’s website, and which Mustain kindly provided a link to. It makes for some interesting reading. For example, it declares that “88 of the 100 most commonly consumed foods and beverages in America would fail the IWG’s proposed standards.”

To some people, i.e. those without a bag over their head, this would indicate that 88 percent of the foods Americans are currently being provided by the industry can’t meet basic nutritional standards. To GM, however, it indicated that the problem here lay not with the food industry but with the guidelines, whose “focus on food advertising is misplaced, and distracts badly needed attention from the declines in physical activity and other societal factors that actually are fostering the obesity crisis.” In other words, the root of our childhood obesity epidemic is anything and everything other than successfully cajoling children to eat processed food.

As expected, GM is particularly offended by the notion that cereal is in any way involved. Just the opposite, in fact. According to GM, packaged cereal is just about the greatest boon to our health since penicillin. Again, let their letter speak for itself. “Even worse, the Proposal’s nutrition standards are such that they would ban the advertising of numerous foods that are extremely beneficial to public health and key weapons in the war against obesity – including virtually all cereals. Literally all cereals marketed by General Mills would be barred from advertising…”

The letter refers the reader to, “the undisputed science that children who eat cereal (including sweetened cereals) are far less likely to be overweight (and have far better nutrient intakes) than children who do not eat cereal.” But this will not impress the reader who is a regular visitor to CalorieLab, and who knows that children who eat anything for breakfast experience less subsequent hunger and thus eat less the rest of the day than breakfast-skippers. They also know that the No. 1 breakfast item by far among American kids is cereal, and that “children who do not eat cereal” in most cases do not eat breakfast at all.

GM also reminds us why cereal is America’s most consumed breakfast item: “because cereal is the individual food product most commonly advertised to children.” GM considers the potentially dramatic effect of a ban on cereal ads to be a potent argument against the guidelines. Ironically, nutritionists consider it just the opposite.

But GM’s ace in the hole argument is the one almost always trotted out by any industry to oppose reform or regulation: it would cost too much. In this case, shudders GM, “a shift by the average American to the IWG diet would conservatively increase the individual’s annual food spending by $1,632.”

Firstly, estimates of hypothetical financial impact are among the most easily manipulated, and you can bet this one has been. Secondly, we are not talking about the average American’s total diet, we are talking about the foods specifically advertised to kids. Count Chocula would still be on the shelves; it just wouldn’t be in your children’s faces when they watched cartoons on TV. Thirdly, it would be singularly easy for the cereal industry to meet the guidelines simply by increasing the whole grain content of their cereals to 50 percent. It would also be a major nutritional upgrade in the case of those cereals, and there are plenty of them, that are currently more than 50 percent sugar and other sweeteners. And finally, as noted by Mustain, $1,650 isn’t so imposing a sum when you stack it up against the annual costs to the obese individual, given the associated heart, joint, diabetes and other problems, which can easily run to five times that figure. Alas, Mustain did not include in his article what for me was the most amusing line in the GM letter. Here it is. “We would respectfully urge the IWG to withdraw the Proposal immediately and return to the more narrowly defined task actually given the IWG by Congress — namely, the task of studying the issue and reporting the results of such study to Congress.”

You’d better believe GM would prefer that the IWG quit making concrete proposals to federal government agencies, and just deliver a report to Congress. Because GM knows, as does any observant American, that leaving it up to Congress to act on a report is as effective as simply burning the report. The food industry’s lobbyists, a group that could fill most NBA arenas, would quickly turn the IWG report into birdcage liner. The goal would be to so bury the report in congressional “study” groups that the general public would never even hear of it.

Unfortunately, if all the above is news to you, they’ve basically already succeeded.

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

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

General Mills Wants No Restrictions on Advertising to Kids is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) IanMatthewSoper/Flickr

Auditory hallucinations, or hearing voices, has long been one of the terrible manifestations of severe mental illness such as schizophrenia.

Besides the obvious confusion and distress this can cause the individual, listening to these voices can lead to horrific behavioral consequences. It’s interesting that you never hear of these voices telling mentally ill people to sit quietly and behave themselves. Maybe those examples are just not newsworthy enough.

What most people are not aware of is that some normal, healthy people also hear voices. It is estimated that up to 5 percent of the population has these auditory hallucinations.

Researchers from the Bergen fMRI Group at the University of Bergen (UiB), led by post doctor Kristiina Kompus, are studying normal people who hear voices in hopes that their research can lead to ways of helping those with mental illness.

A recent report of the group’s results has been published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

The primary auditory cortex is the region of the brain that processes sound. This cortical region in both healthy people and those with schizophrenia reacts less to outside stimuli.

“We have found that the primary auditory cortex of healthy people who hear voices responds less to outside stimulus than the corresponding area of the brain in people who don’t hear voices,” says Dr. Kompus.

However, healthy people who hear voices have a greater ability to use cognitive control to regulate the primary auditory cortex, whereas those with schizophrenia have a reduced ability to do this.

“Because of this cognitive control, healthy people who hear voices are able to direct their attention outwards. This sets them apart from schizophrenics, who have a tendency to direct their attention inwards due to their decreased ability to regulate their primary auditory cortex,” says Kompus.

The good news, according to Dr. Kompus, is, “These discoveries have brought us one step closer to understanding the hallucinations of schizophrenics and why the voices become a problem for some people but not for others.”

I heard a voice talk to me one time.

I was out on my morning run on a short section of two lane highway with very little shoulder to run on. Although the road is not too busy, the speed limit is 55 mph, so the cars go pretty fast. I was running on the left two-foot edge of the road against the oncoming traffic, but there was no traffic at that time that I was aware of and I could see a half-mile down the highway.

Suddenly I heard a very clear voice (not my own) say, “Get off the road!”

I did not question it, but took immediate cognitive control and stepped off the road to my left onto the shoulder. In less than a second, a car came from behind me driving at least 65 MPH, and drove right where I had been running! They were passing a car going the same direction I was running so they went into the lane where I was to pass the other slower car. If I had not listened to the voice and moved, I would probably have been killed!

I’d say that voice qualifies for wonderful.

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Hearing Voices: The Terrible, the Good, and the Wonderful is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

© spotmatikphoto – Fotolia

Put away that crossword puzzle and Sodoku book: A new study has found that certain video games can actually slow down cognitive decline in people aged 50 to 65.

The study comes to us from the University of Iowa, and found people over the age of 50 who played a game called “Road Tour” (which has been renamed to “Double Decision”) for 10 hours showed a delayed decline in cognitive skills.

“We know that we can stop this decline and actually restore cognitive processing speed to people,” said Fredric Wolinsky, the lead author of the study. “So, if we know that, shouldn’t we be helping people? It’s fairly easy, and anyone can go get the training game and play it.”

“Road Tour,” the game used in the study, has players identifying a vehicle type, then reidentifying it while matching it up with a road sign. The road sign is displayed among false answers. As the player moves on, the game speeds up. This helps the player exercise his or her mental speed and agility.

“The game starts off with an assessment to determine your current speed of processing. Whatever it is, the training can help you get about 70 percent faster,” Wolinsky said.

The group of participants who played the game for 10 hours were tested again a year later and researchers found they had delayed cognitive decline by an extra three years. The group of participants that played the game for 14 hours showed even more improvement.

“We not only prevented the decline; we actually sped them up,” Wolinsky added. “As we get older, our visual field collapses on us. We get tunnel vision. It’s a normal functioning of aging. This helps to explain why most accidents happen at intersections because older folks are looking straight ahead and are less aware of peripherals.”

Researchers of the study also had a group of participants play computerized crossword puzzles. However, they found that participants who played “Road Tour” scored better on tests that involved concentration, nimbleness and mentally shifting tasks.

(By Marissa Brassfield for CalorieLab)

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Video Game Helps Slow Mental Decline is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

Sometimes it can be all the support group you need

USA Today is running an ongoing series called the Family Fitness Challenge, in which various families with weight problems that they would like to eliminate are followed as they undertake programs to shed some bulk. After three months, the Ibarra family of San Jose — father Jose, age 46, mother Doris, 45, daughter Jocelyn, 20, and son Joseph, 16 — have lost an aggregate 50 pounds or so. The men have lost a bit more than the women; Jose is down 14 pounds and Joseph has literally lost his age, 16 pounds, compared to about 20 pounds total for Doris and Jocelyn. Of course, the guys had more heft to lose to begin with.

Their absolute weight loss numbers, at an average of just over four pounds per person per month, are not particularly stunning, but the fact that they have all lost weight, continue to lose weight, and are happy and enthusiastic about the changes they’ve had to make to do so, qualifies them as an example that many people might find worth adopting as role models. This is especially true given that their lives are replete with all the standard distractions, pressures, and other reasons that derail typical family weight-loss intentions: school, jobs and social obligations.

The latter item is a significant one. In addition to his full-time job as a custodial supervisor, Jose is the pastor of a local church, a role that involves the entire family and carries time demands that make exercise opportunities elusive and takeout meals alluringly convenient. They’ve succeeded so far thanks to a combination of starting-point rules and lessons learned along the way. These can be reduced to a series of principles that might be of benefit to families in similar circumstances.

Keep the concept of “a complete diet and exercise makeover” in perspective. That’s what we’re ultimately talking about, true, but putting it in those terms makes it sound like D-Day. This is going to be a gradual, drawn out process, and the cumulation of a lot of small alterations in your lifestyle. It means, for example, simply eating less of most of the things you eat now, rather than drastically altering your diet and attempting to banish all the foods you love. Conscientious portion control, not food deprivation, is the key.

It’s okay to indulge the occasional craving. What’s important is that you make up for it by cutting back elsewhere on that day’s calorie intake to stay under your daily limit.

Think before you eat. Are you about to make a sensible choice, or a self-indulgent one? What are your priorities? Is there a less-caloric alternative that would be as satisfying? In short, eat smart, not mindlessly.

Eat breakfast daily and if possible together. Skip breakfast, and you start the day (1) hungry and (2) headed out into a world of dietary land mines. For the Ibarras, a good breakfast was the single greatest factor in avoiding hunger pangs the rest of the day.

If you have to eat fast food, eat selectively. Restaurant menus and menu boards now post the calorie contents; take them seriously and apply them when you order, even if you have to use a calculator. And when given a choice between larger and smaller sizes, think “portion control.”

Try to make exercise your personal ally instead of your personal dread. This is probably the hardest part for most families. It’s often difficult to find the time, and just as difficult to gin up the motivation. According to Donna Ibarra, “José finds creative ways to work it in and Jocelyn and Joseph challenge one another to do better.” Of course we’re not all creative, and we respond so challenges differently. The Ibarra’s solution has been to make the program a full-family effort, to support and encourage one another rather than criticize or judge, and for each of them, to want to avoid being “the weakest link that holds the family back.”

There’s an exercise out there somewhere with your name on it. For nearly everyone, there is some form of physical activity that seems more pleasant and rewarding than burdensome or inconvenient. Find yours and embrace it wholeheartedly. If you can regard it as a challenge, and are the type who enjoys confronting challenges, so much the better. Hopefully, you’ll find an exercise that you do because you want to, not because you’re supposed to.

Everyone is lazy, and everyone is afraid to fail. Those were the greatest barriers for the Ibarras to overcome, and they might be yours as well. But they’re just barriers, not dead ends. The Ibarras got past them and you can too.

Frustration is inevitable, but manageable. You’re going to hit weight-loss plateaus, individually and as a family, when your bodies begin to compensate for your reduced net calories and seemingly refuse to lose another pound. This may mean temporarily increasing your amount or level of exercise to reset your metabolism. The thing to bear in mind is that plateaus are not permanent. Be patient, remain diligent, and you can outlast them and keep on losing.

When possible, eat at home. It’s healthier and more controllable than the alternatives, and like the program itself, something you’re doing together. The Ibarras don’t specifically mention it, but there’s one point that comes through all the others they raise. To wit:

You’re sticking with the program not just for your own health, but for the health of those you love.

In short, the family that loses together, wins together.

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

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Making Weight Loss a Family Affair is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog

(CC) Danielle Walquist Lynch/Flickr

Traditionally, basic training to run a marathon consisted of a several-month stretch of running perhaps 40 to 50 miles a week. There were a few rest days every week and some very long runs towards the end, usually 20 miles or so to get you ready for the real thing. From what I’ve seen, injuries were not uncommon. Perhaps that was why, when I started running, I did not do it in the traditional way.

Initially I wasn’t training for anything, I just ran — not too far, perhaps two miles or so — but almost every day. I had a friend who lived a couple of blocks from the university where I worked, so after evening rounds, I would run on a measured course on the campus, and then go to his home for a while to just hang out before driving back to my home.

Eventually I ran longer distances, around five miles at a time, and eventually converted to a morning runner, but still ran almost every day before going to work. Over the next couple of years, I increased my distance to around 10 to 12 miles many days, but only very rarely ran further than that. I stayed relatively injury-free and just kept keeping on. I never wanted to run a marathon, although one crazy day I did run around 35 miles! I had originally intended to run somewhere near the 26-mile marathon distance, running from where I live on one side of town to a friend’s home on the other side, where I expected that they would give me a ride back home. To my surprise, they were not home! At that point, I ran to another friend’s home and was very happy to find him and he provided my return ride, but by then I had run the 35 miles! Fortunately, I took some money with me so “7-Eleven’s” were my go-to aid stations for something to drink on that hot Florida day.

I’ve never eaten on any run I’ve ever done. I always felt I could run a marathon, I just didn’t want to — mostly because of the potential for injuries, but I also felt that with the way training to run a marathon was designed, and with the strain of the very long 20-mile training runs plus the marathon itself, I would actually run less by running marathons. I never trained to run a marathon, I just did marathon training.

I recently saw an article about a new way of training for a marathon called “Hanson’s Marathon Method,” designed by two brothers, Keith and Kevin Hanson.

Unlike other marathon training programs, which typically have runs of 20 miles or longer, the Hansons’ method does not exceed a run of 16 miles. The training is hard, with runs six days a week, and midweek runs of up to 12 miles. The theory is to train on tired legs so that you will be ready for the last 16 miles of the race, not the first 20.

“Everyone asks, ‘Why a 16-miler?’ My question is, why a 20-miler?” said Keith Hanson. “I’ll tell you why. Because you’ve been brainwashed. Because every program out there has a 20-miler, so it must be right?”

The Hansons’ say their program trains runners to get ready for the marathon by building cumulative fatigue. I can relate to that!

The beginner program, where the highest distance week is 57 miles, includes three 16-mile runs. However, you do not get a lot of rest between them. The first 16-miler, for example, is done on a Sunday, after a six-to-eight-mile run on Saturday, a short run on Friday and a long tempo run on Thursday. Then Monday you run again, followed by an interval workout on Tuesday and a rest day on Wednesday.

The running schedule is based on the philosophy that no one workout is more important than another. “On some schedules, you rest the day before and after the 20-miler. That’s putting too much emphasis on one workout. For someone whose weekly mileage is going to top out at 50 miles, it means they’re doing 40 percent of their running in one day,” said Keith.

“Running on tired legs is a big part of our plan, because you’ve got to get used to it,” said Kevin. “It’s not a bad thing to feel tired. If someone can only run three days a week, I don’t think they’re going to be properly prepared for the marathon. You can’t possibly callous your body to the rigors of the marathon itself.”

It seems I’ve been doing this type of marathon training all along. It certainly has worked for me, especially that day when my training proved quite useful on that unplanned 35 mile adventure!

If you are interested in this type of training, here is a link to a large sample of their book.

Ed. note: Enjoyed this post? Click the “Like” button below and be sure to “Like” the CalorieLab Facebook page.

Training for a Marathon Versus Marathon Training is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog