Living Large

It has become more and more evident in recent years that our nation is falling prey to the Obesity epidemic. The most discouraging area we are seeing growth is with children. Every day, nearly one-third of U.S. children aged 4 to 19 eat fast food, which likely packs on about six extra pounds per child per year and increases the risk of obesity.

The numbers, though alarming, are not surprising since billions of dollars are spent each year on fast-food advertising directed at kids. The findings in recent studies suggest that fast-food consumption has increased fivefold among children since 1970.

Children who eat fast food on a regular basis consumed more fats, sugars and carbohydrates and fewer fruits and non-starchy vegetables than those who don't eat fast food. They also consume about 187 more daily calories, which can add up to about six pounds more per year.

If you are a parent, consider eating more meals at home, packing a turkey or peanut butter sandwich when traveling in the car and making sure you get exercise as a family. The third contributing factor to the obesity epidemic is too much stress on the family. Taking a walk in the evenings will not only burn calories but it will give each of you a chance to talk, learn about each other's day and relieve extra stress in the process.

Forty years ago, families cooked dinner and sat and ate it together on a regular basis. Too often now, dinner is grabbed from a fast food restaurant and eaten on the go. It's important to set a good example for your children by being active yourself and planning family activities such as biking, hiking, running, walking, swimming or skating. There's no alternative to a parent cooking a dinner and eating it with his or her children, and taking them outside to play. The answer to the obesity problem is very simple. We need to return to more traditional ways of eating, exercising and being with our families.

Benefits of Staying Healthy

Recently, I fractured a rib snowboarding, and now that I’m in healing mode I have more time to reflect on being healthy.  You know what they say about not being able to appreciate something until it’s gone – I can definitely vouch for that.  Each movement provides me with a constant reminder that my body is not 100 percent.

What does being healthy mean?  In our fast-paced society, it’s often portrayed as just being slim, toned, or even just skinny.  Medilexicon's medical dictionary defines it as "Well; in a state of normal functioning; free from disease."

So, truthfully, the definition of healthy is not an “image”, but a state of being, a way of life.  Research shows that exercising regularly and eating a healthier diet containing whole natural foods, and getting adequate, regular sleep pays off -- even if you never lose weight.

Increasing your activity level alone makes you feel better immediately.  Government guidelines now recommend 30 minutes of activity most days of the week for most people. So you can take a brisk walk or mow the lawn and reap benefits, among them:

Increasing your activity level reduces your risk of heart disease by improving blood circulation throughout the body, according to the American Heart Association. Also, you'll be better able to control high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

Exercise may reduce your risk of developing adult-onset diabetes, which has hit nearly epidemic levels in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., found that an hour a day of moderate-intensity exercise for men raised their sensitivity to insulin, which may reduce their risk of developing the disease.

By now you probably realize that health is complex – if one part of the body system suffers, you’re likely to see consequences in other areas of your life. Though diet and exercise are critical components of healthy lifestyles, it’s also important to remember that sleep is inherently linked with how we eat (and how much), how we exercise (and whether or not we lose weight), and how we function on a daily basis.

So, in the spirit of Living Clean, I urge you to take action in your own life.  Begin now, before it's too late, before too many years have passed you by, to make these three areas a bigger focus in your life.  Set regular sleep/wake up times, go for a walk four or five times a week, and mix in a salad at lunch instead of the fries or chips.  Simple steps that can go a long way toward keeping healthy, mobile, and happy.

Liquid Danger

Everyone has heard that a can of coke can dissolve a steak or clean a corroded car battery. While these examples are extreme and have yet to be proven, there are many very realistic dangers that come from drinking sodas on a regular basis.

For one, you increase your risk of getting Type 2 Diabetes. Any time you have a very large amount of sugar entering the body at once, you mess up the stabilized nature of your insulin and blood sugar causing your body to go into over drive to balance things out. Chronic use of high volumes of sugar will inevitably cause your body to have trouble making and stabilizing sugar, the very definition of Type 2 Diabetes. Most Americans drink at least 1 can of soda each day, most much more, the equivalent of 10 cubes of sugar - most of us would never dare eat 10 cubes of sugar but think nothing of downing 1-3 cans of soda each day.

Another concern for chronic soda drinkers is bone and tooth decay. Most of us have been told over and over again by the dentist to steer clear of sodas but the bone decay is something most of us never consider. According to a recent article on MSN the group at the greatest risk is older women. It says,

"Women are at greater risk of osteoporosis, or bone thinning, as they get older. Most of us already know that. But many people don't realize that drinking a lot of cola and other soft drinks increases osteoporosis risk—or causes the disease to progress faster. The phosphoric acid that makes fizzy drinks fizz actually eats away at bone, making it more porous."

Something else that is alarming is that drinking large amounts of cola can weaken the potassium levels in your muscles causing them to atrophy. Most of us are trying to build up muscle mass, not lose it.

So, what can we do? Most importantly we can drink more water. The benefits of water are ten fold and you can never go wrong replacing your current cola beverage with water. Get creative and add lemon, lime or 
even orange slices to your water for a fun twist. 

The Paleo Diet

One of the biggest fads of our generation is getting back to basics. You see it in fashion, decorating, fitness and lifestyle. Over the years we have been bombarded with fads of every shape and size and while this back to basics mentality may be another one in many areas, one area it really does apply to is the way we eat.

If you are interested in a stricter eating plan that will produce dramatic results with minimal effort then you should consider the Paleo diet. The basic premise of this eating plan is that if your ancestors ate it, you can eat it! Naturally, this eliminates all of the obviously bad for you processed food of our generation. Our ancestors never heard of a hydrogenated vegetable oil compound or trans fatty acids.

Recent statistics show that for the first time in history, more people in current population are obese than are just over weight. While that is a startling fact, we can't help but understand why. We have fast food vendors on every corner, convenience foods filling our cabinets and television screens plastered on our foreheads. Simply put: We need to get back to basics. Rarely do we enjoy food in its purest form - every where you turn it's scattered, smothered and covered!

So what is this Paleo Diet and what can I eat? You can enjoy any lean meat, seafood, fruit, vegetable, nut or seed as well as dried fruit, diet sodas, coffee, tea and heart healthy oils. If this diet sounds like a fit for you, feel free to browse the Paleo Diet site for more information.

As always, contact me with any thoughts or questions!

Crash Not, Gain Not

Everyone knows that crash diets do not work and are bad for you - so why do we keep doing them? We drink only juice for 3 days to flush our system or we promise to never eat a piece of pasta again! How can you be sure if something is a crash diet or not? First anything that has an always or never concept is a crash diet. Also, anything that promises rabid results in a short amount of time is a crash diet. If you can't follow a certain eating plan for the rest of your life, as a life change, then it is not something you want any part of. 

You will find many sites on the internet claiming significant weight loss in just a few days, especially this time of year when resolutions are at their peak. However, this type of weight loss is always temporary. It is usually 90% water which will be put straight back on as soon as your body rehydrates, which it must do if you are not going to suffer severe health problems.

Crash diets promise to help you lose weight but what they don't tell you is that you'll not only gain the weight back once you've stopped the diet plan, you'll also gain some possibly significant health risks.

What are the effects of Crash diet?

Here are the effects that crash dieting can have on your body and on your health:

• Harder to lose fat: When you crash diet, your body goes into starvation mode and it stores your fat and burns your muscle. Your muscle burns calories, so when your fat is stored up, it makes it harder to lose weight when the muscle is lacking. Muscle also gives you lean long lines and fat gives you that dimpled effect.
  
• Lowered metabolism: Along with loss of muscle, the lack of calories in your diet results in a lowered metabolism. It is vital to eat five to six small meals per day so that your metabolism is kept fed. The starvation mode makes your metabolism go into an almost sleep-like state.
• Gallstones: Crash dieting has been linked to the development of gallstones. With the change involved with the lack of nutrients to your body, your bile slats and cholesterol get out of whack and you end up with the potential to develop gallstones.
  
• Psychological effect: Crash diets are extremely hard on your overall mental and emotional health. Not only do crash diets cause extreme food cravings, but they can also wreak havoc with your mood: you may find yourself feeling more irritable or depressed than usual when you are on a crash diet. Crash diets can also set people up for serious mental health disorders, particularly eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.
• Harm vital organs: Crash diets are extremely dangerous for your vital organs, including your heart, kidneys, liver, and brain. In order to perform their daily functions, your vital organs rely on energy from your carbohydrate intake. During strict crash diets, carbohydrate and calorie intake is so low that your organs cannot get enough energy from these sources. As a result, your organs begin to burn muscle tissue in order to get adequate amounts of energy to perform vital functions. This can result in serious health problems.
• Dehydration: Everyone knows that your body requires lots of water, so when you deprive your body of food, you end up depriving your body of much needed water. Many foods are rich in water content, like fruits, and when they are lacking from your diet, dehydration can set in.
• Osteoporosis: Long-term crash dieters frequently suffer from osteoporosis, a disease that causes the bones in your body to become extremely brittle. This is because fast crash diets severely limit your intake of calcium. As a result, calcium begins to leach out of the bones in your body, leaving them particularly fragile. Many crash dieters suffer broken bones, particularly hips and wrists, as a result of their osteoporosis.
• Hair loss: Longterm crash dieting can result in hair loss. Due to the lack of vitamins and minerals that your body receives through a healthy diet, your hair can become terribly brittle and fall out. Food is rich in vitamins and minerals, and when you keep them away from your body, it effects your hair, nails, and even the color of your skin.

What should I do?

With a balanced eating plan, it's what you leave in that makes all the difference. For a balanced eating plan to be successful, you need to:

• Eat plenty of vegetables, legumes and fruits;
• Include lean meat, fish, poultry or alternatives;
• Include milks, yogurts, cheeses or alternatives;
• Drink plenty of water;
• Limit saturated fat and moderate total fat intake;
• Choose reduced fat varieties of foods where possible;
• Choose foods low in salt;
• Limit your alcohol intake, if you choose to drink;
• Consume only  small amounts of sugars and foods containing added sugars.

Starving yourself to lose weight is not enjoyable and takes the fun out of eating. Eating should be enjoyable not stressful. The only way to lose weight is to do it slowly, with a balanced diet focused on foods that are good for your body. See what plan I recommend here.

Forget crash diets and lose weight the right way!

thanks to Life Mojo for some of these startling facts!

Why the GI diet is right for Everyone

As the new year approaches we are going to be bombarded with weight loss ads and promises: "Eat this and lose 20 lbs!", "Potatoes are bad!", "Potatoes are a healthy source of vitamins and minerals!" How can anyone actually know which direction is right for them? We all know that reduction in calories and addition of exercise is the only way to achieve effective weight loss, but did you know that low calorie or not, certain foods can sabotage your efforts?

Allow me to introduce you to the Glycemic Index method of eating. The glycemic index ranks foods on how they affect our blood glucose levels or how much your blood glucose increases in the two or three hours after eating.

The goal of this plan is to consume foods that measure low on the glycemic index, thus creating a stable state for the body, with no wild fluctuations in blood sugar that might cause insulin to call out to the fat cells to produce more fat in the body. As a result, stable blood sugar levels will help the body not to crave more and more carbohydrates, which is a vicious cycle for any dieter. When we eat foods that are high on the glycemic index, such as white bread, french fries, cookies and pizza, our hunger is not satisfied. Rather, we crave more and more carbohydrates, creating a cycle of the more we eat, the hungrier we get. By following a low glycemic diet, you should find yourself losing weight while increasing your overall health. As stated above, in order to gain the maximum benefit, you should incorporate exercise into your lifestyle.

Most carbohydrates found in food produce glucose during the digestive process. The GI compares the speed with which foods digest and gives each food a rating between 1 and 100. The higher a food appears on the GI Index, the more likely it is to trigger a spike in blood sugar. In the GI diet, foods with low GI values (lower than 55 glucose based) are optimal. The low GI foods will not kick up the glucose levels in the blood.

Tips for Low GI-Diet

• Watch your portion sizes or serving sizes; the bigger the portion, the more it will increase your blood glucose, regardless of its GI rank. 
• Eat at least one low GI food at each meal. 
• If you want to have a high GI food in a meal, combine it with a low GI food to make it a medium GI meal. For example, half a bagel (high GI) with a bowl of strawberries (low GI). 
• Limit the amount of processed, refined starchy foods. 
• Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. The fiber in them prevents glucose shocks and reduces hunger without adding calories. 
• Use breakfast cereals based on oat bran, barley and wheat bran. 
• Legumes, beans and lentils have low glycemic index and protein rich foods. 
• Eat whole grain bread than white bread. 
• Animal products do not have a GI and are usually high in fat, protein, cholesterol and no carbohydrate. But you should eat these in moderation as these are not good for cholesterol and weight loss.

This is not just some random fad diet, there is plenty of research out there to back its premise up. As reported by the Boston Sun in reference to a recent research study,

"After six months, people who followed the high-protein, low glycemic index diet were more likely to keep their weight stable or continue to lose weight than the people who ate a low-protein, high glycemic index diet."

Another reason to avoid food with high glucose or blood sugar producing qualities is its effect on your brain. Glucose is the only fuel normally used by brain cells. Because neurons cannot store glucose, they depend on the bloodstream to deliver a constant supply of this precious fuel. This blood sugar is obtained from carbohydrates: the starches and sugars you eat in the form of grains and legumes, fruits and vegetables. Too much sugar or refined carbohydrates at one time, however, can actually deprive your brain of glucose – depleting its energy supply and compromising your brain's power to concentrate, remember, and learn. Mental activity requires a lot of energy. Eating high GI foods will not only make your weight go up, it will make your overall productivity go down. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a recipe for disaster!

What are you waiting for? Give it a try! The Low Glycemic Diet seeks to stabilize blood sugar levels, decrease cravings, and ultimately decrease the level of body fat while increasing heart health. Also, in order to work effectively, dieters must watch their overall fat intake. While it is better to eat more healthy fats than processed carbohydrates, common sense tells us that weight loss will not occur if we are munching on almonds all day long. This eating plan is research-based, and entirely workable if we control portion size along with increasing our level of exercise. Done correctly, cravings should decrease, and an overall better sense of health should be the result.

Here are a few resources I used  to help get you started:

The Effects of Blood Sugar on the Brain

Ins and Outs of The Glycemic Index

Glycemic Index Calculators and Charts