Tag Archives: diet

Why your diet may not be working as well as you hoped (and how to fix it).

Posted on August 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

Many people follow a diet to lose weight, treat health conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes, or to feel “healthier.” Some of these diets are based on research (the DASH diet, Mediterranean diet, etc.) and others are simply trendy at the moment (the Paleo diet).

There is great debate about which diet is the best. Unfortunately, there are no good answers to that question. The good news is that almost all diets are good,  meaning that they are at least partially effective for improving some health measure. People do lose weight following even the most ridiculous diets, right?

It turns out that the diet is only one part of an effective strategy for weight loss or lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, or glucose. The other essential factor is  physical activity!

Regular exercise, or pretty much any activity, is important for several reasons. For a person trying to lose weight, exercise adds to weight loss and helps keep the weight off later. Nutritional interventions for diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are all more effective with exercise.

The idea that a diet is more effective when combined with exercise is the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

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In vitro beef and other fake food.

Posted on August 19, 2013 | Leave a comment

My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is about the in vitro burger you no doubt heard about in the news. Would you eat meat that was created in a laboratory? Many people would say no, mostly because it seems “unnatural.”

But most of us eat plenty of processed and modified foods every day. Aren’t these foods also unnatural?

You can learn more about the story behind the creation as well as results of the first taste test of the “test tube” burger at the following links:

A good New York Times story about the taste test here.

An article in Scientific American here:

If you are looking for something to listen to while you exercise, try this radio story on Science Friday on NPR.

Another New York Times story about the creation of the burger is here.

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What kids will be missing when they go back to school.

Posted on August 12, 2013 | Leave a comment

My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is about the experience of heading back to school. But it’s really about what most kids won’t experience when they are in school—any meaningful education about nutrition, activity, and health.

To be sure, the time that students spend learning the math and science, reading and writing, and art and music is time well spent. Unfortunately, though, in most schools, this comes at the expense of health education. In fact, opportunities for children to be active in school, either through formal physical education or more informal play and recess, has declined over the years. Good nutrition isn’t likely to get much classroom time at any level and the food served in most school hardly sends a positive message about healthy eating. These are missed opportunities!

This isn’t new, of course. I have written about the both the importance of physical activity for growth and learning for children (and adults, too) and the impact of these missed opportunities before. And I’m certainly not the only one to take notice. Probably the most widely known advocate in this area is Jamie Oliver, and his efforts made nutrition and health in schools topics for discussion among parents, teachers, administrators, and politicians alike.

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Food science beach reads: learn about food and cooking while you work on your tan

Posted on July 15, 2013 | Leave a comment

My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is a summer reading list of books about food  and cooking. It turns out that most people really don’t understand what they are eating or the processes that went into cooking their food. Knowing how food is prepared can help you make healthier eating choices, whether you are doing the cooking yourself or if you are eating prepared meals.

Here are three books about food science you can take to the beach (and one you can’t):

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan

This is the most recent of Pollan’s excellent books, all of which should be required reading for anyone who eats. You can hear a nice interview with him about Cooked here and one about a previous book here (both are from Science Friday on NPR).

On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee

Harold McGee also contributed to an excellent series about coffee on Science Friday on NPR. It turns out we can learn a few things about the first thing many of us consume each day.

McGee also has/had a column in the New York Times called the Curious Cook. It doesn’t appear to have been updated recently, but the older posts are still worth a read.

What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained and What Einstein Told His Cook 2, The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science by Robert Wolke

Robert Wolke also used to write a column called Food 101 in the Washington Post. The old articles are still available and worth checking out.

Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold

This one is a workout both to read (it is a collection of six books) and to carry to the beach (it weighs over 50 lbs)! Even if you don’t buy it (it costs over $500) it is worth a look—the pictures of the cooking processes are amazing. In fact, a book of photos called The Photography of Modernist Cuisine is available for pre-order now.

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The Health and Fitness guide to surviving a zombie apocalypse.

Posted on June 17, 2013 | Leave a comment

So, my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is about zombies. More specifically, how a healthy diet and regular exercise can improve your chances of escaping a zombie invasion. Which is something that some people worry about.

If you aren’t worried about a zombie apocalypse you might be after seeing the movie World War Z, which opens this week.

Oddly, this isn’t the first time that I have managed to link nutrition and fitness with zombies.

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My Friend Shannon is in the newspaper!

Posted on June 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

My Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week is about my friend Shannon and her remodeling project. I have been writing about Shannon on this blog for some time, but I thought her story was worth sharing elsewhere.

Shannon has been trying to do what I call remodeling–losing a little weight and adding some muscle. To do this she started an exercise program and is now exercising nearly every day. She has also changed her diet, focusing mostly on eating out less, reducing portion sizes, and eating more fruits and vegetables.

It has been working!

What is interesting about Shannon is that the specifics of her diet and exercise program aren’t the reason for her success. Yes, that is how she lost fat and added muscle, but she could have done that following almost any diet and exercise program.

What helped Shannon the most is that she changed her habits. For years she didn’t exercise much and ate a diet that consisted largely of unhealthy foods. This was mostly due to convenience–it was easier to eat out and not exercise.

Changing these behaviors was the real challenge. Shannon’s lifestyle and interactions with others supported her former habits. And changing these habits isn’t easy. It means saying “no, thank you” a lot and making difficult choices about what to eat and when to exercise.

But she has done it and learned along the way that she really can make those tough decisions. And so can everyone else. The key is to focus on WHY we eat what we eat and WHY we don’t exercise rather than obsess about exactly WHAT to eat and WHAT to do for exercise.

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Weight loss reduces physical limitations and improves physical function.

Posted on June 5, 2013 | 1 comment

Last week I presented a study at the American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting in Indianapolis showing that weight loss can improve physical function and reduce physical limitations. This study was also the topic of my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week.

In this study 48 subjects followed a low-calorie diet (~1200 calories/day) and participated in daily exercise (progressing to 60 minutes per day of walking). The diet and exercise programs resulted in significant weight loss, about 13 pounds on average, or over 1.5 pounds per week.

We assessed physical function using a simple physical test called the timed get-up and go test (TGUG), in which the time required to rise from a chair, walk 10 feet, and return to the chair was measured. The subjects also completed the physical functioning domain of the Short-Form 36 Health Status Survey (SF-36), a subjective reporting of health-related quality of life.

Following weight loss the TGUG time was lower, meaning the subjects were able to complete the test more quickly. The SF-36 Physical Function score was  higher. Together, these tests indicate that the subjects were experiencing improved physical function and fewer limitations to normal activities

This is important because physical limitations can have a big impact of quality of life. Being overweight makes simple physical tasks, such as bending over and tying your shoes, challenging. Losing weight can make these things easier, improving quality of life.

This is consistent with what many people who have lost weight report: “I feel so much better now than I did when I was heavy,” or “I didn’t realize how difficult things were for me.”

Sometimes, it’s the little things that count the most!

 

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What is one portion?

Posted on May 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

I think everyone knows that we have become accustomed to large portion sizes. And large portion sizes can add up to too many calories which can add up to weight gain.

Unless you have read a food label and carefully measured out one serving you may not realize how big your “normal” portions really are. This video will show you:

When you are done with that one, check out this video that shows what 2000 calories, the “typical” recommended daily intake, looks like coming from some of your favorite foods:

 

 

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Using a physical activity time machine to explain the obesity epidemic.

Posted on May 21, 2013 | Leave a comment

What caused the current obesity epidemic? Is it that we are eating more now? Or are we less active than we were? Most likely, it is a combination of both. And although the typical American diet is given plenty of blame for causing people to gain weight, a low level of physical activity deserves attention, too.

One way to answer this question is to look back at what life was like about 100 years ago, when obesity was uncommon. Unfortunately, no one thought to make accurate measures of daily activity back then. But there is a way to go back in time and assess the diet and physical activity that was common 100 years ago.

In my Health & Fitness column in the Aiken Standard this week I wrote about an interesting study that essentially took researchers back in time to measure physical activity. The results show that we are much less active today, which certainly plays a big role in the obesity epidemic.

You can learn more about the study I mentioned here.

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Eating healthy and saving money–it can be done! And your family should try it.

Posted on May 2, 2013 | Leave a comment

I read this interesting article in USA Today about a family who is working together to lose weight by eating healthy and exercising more. The family is participating the USA Today’s Family Fitness Challenge, which provides them with expert advice.

Predictably, their fitness is improving and they are losing weight (over 100 pounds total so far). One family member even quit smoking!

What may be surprising is that they are saving money following their new healthier diet. By preparing most meals at home they are saving about $300 per week on food!

Another happy consequence is that they are spending more time together as a family by eating meals  and exercising together. No doubt this is good support for them as they try to improve their health.

They are doing this as part of  a TV show (The Doctors) and they have an exercise physiologist and a nutritionist working with them, so it would be easy to think that a typical family without this support wouldn’t be successful. I disagree.

I think that if most families started preparing dinners at home, eating as a family, and going for a walk (or doing some other activity) together after dinner they would get in better shape, lose weight, and benefit from more time together.

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