Fabulous, Filling FIBER!

So much emphasis is placed on what NOT to eat when we want to lose weight - no sweets, no pop, low-sugar, no-fat - that we can forget there are foods we absolutely should eat every day! Good, filling, nutritious foods that do good things for our waistlines outside and our digestive tract inside!

Those foods are the ones that are high in Fiber!

Fiber is the part of plant foods that that your body doesn't digest and absorb.

There are two basic types of fiber: soluble and insoluble. Both are good, so you really don't have to "memorize" which is which; however, insoluble fiber adds bulk to your stool and can help prevent constipation - a great reason to be sure your daily diet is fiber-rich! Vegetables, some fruits, wheat bran, barley, brown rice and other whole grains are good sources of insoluble fiber. 

Soluble fiber may help improve your cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Whole oats, dried beans, and some fruits like apples and oranges, are good sources of soluble fiber. So yes, there is some truth to "an apple (unpeeled) a day keeps the doctor away!

By now you've probably noticed that these are carbohydrate foods! And you're right! These are the "good carbs" that you want to fill 3/4 of your plate with!

In fact, the only problem with fiber is that most of us don't get enough!  Man or woman, make 25 grams or more of all fiber your daily goal. Starting the day with a whole grain cereal will help. The Uncle Sam's brand has almost 10 grams of fiber per serving; that's about as high as you can get in boxed cereals. Then making sure you have vegetables, beans, seeds and whole grains during the rest of the day should help you meet your goal.  You really need to label-read to see if you are getting 25 grams of fiber in your usual day.

Fiber is the friend of anyone who is curbing calories to lose weight because most of the high-fiber foods are not only low in calories, but really help you feel full and satisfied so you don't get hungry so quickly and won't tend to want a "sugar fix".   That's because these high-fiber foods are digested slowly and don't cause a spike and fall in your blood sugar level.

And for those who need more fiber in order to fight a tendency towards constipation, most people can safely take over-the-counter store-brand fiber capsules as a supplement. In fact, fiber supplements can aid in our digestive issues like gas, bloating and diarrhea (that is not illness-based). The usual dosage is up to 6 capsules to start with a full glass of water when you get up in the morning. You can start with 3 and build up to six if you want. Sounds like a lot, but most people find they adapt to the schedule pretty quickly - and appreciate the benefits.

To read more about the benefits of  living the high-fiber life, click here.

Help! I'm Not Hungry; But I'm Eating!

Ever feel like saying that?

Mindless eating is different from boredom or emotional eating....when we snack because we are bored, upset, lonely, stressed or depressed, we usually know why we are moved to move toward the refrigerator. That kind of eating can be tackled with specific behavior techniques.

We know that food is our sustenance  - it keeps the wondrous machines that are our bodies going and functioning. And believe me, I believe in eating 3 meals a day and snacking twice a day...and I want that food to be healthy, nutritious and delicious. We want to eat just enough to satisfy us both physically and emotionally and to fulfill our nutritional needs.  Sounds so simple, doesn't it?

But we all are subject to triggers or cues to eat even when we are not hungry or even thinking about eating.


Time of Day : Our bodies become trained to expect food at certain times. So hormones are secreted that tell our brains we are hungry and ready to eat.

Sight:  Even if you have just eaten a full lunch, if  you walk into a meeting or store or even see a billboard or tv commercial that has food you like on display, your body may respond automatically in mouth-watering anticipation.

Smell: I'll admit it, when I drive past Burger King and smell the "char-broiling", I want a hamburger! And I don't even eat fast food hamburgers! Scent is one way we cue our bodies that food is near. Once triggered, it induces insulin secretion that makes us think we are hungry.

Temperature: The colder then temperature gets, the more people tend to eat - your metabolism drops when it's time to eat and eating warms you up. Heat is a signal of being satisfied. Now you know why restaurants keep their thermostats set so low!

Alcohol:   Just as too much alcohol can impair judgement about many things, it also alters our perception of appetite and can make it harder to push ourselves away form the table.

And finally, just the variety of food and flavors, can make us eat when we are not hungry.  One reason to steer clear of buffets when you are watching your calories --- especially breakfast bars! Notice how even after a large meal, we still want to and DO make room for dessert? Nutritionists say that's because our desire for sweets has not been satisfied during the meal, so try having some fruit during dinner to see if it will curb this natural sugar craving.

There you have it - six eating triggers that you may not have realized work against your efforts to eat right and light! Always remember, ask yourself "Am I hungry?" before taking that first bite!

Do Cars Make Us Fat?

According to a study published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health, there is a lower rate of overweight and obesity in countries where most people walk, cycle or use public transportation to get around on a daily basis instead of driving their own cars. This makes sense, but it certainly doesn't mean that cars, themselves, make us fat.

Physical activity is the other side of the weight management balance scale. Weight - for most of us - is a matter of the simple calories in = calories out energy equation. We do use a certain number of calories every day just to maintain our metabolism, our breathing, our body's movement and  processes, and to fuel our brains. But if we take in more calories than we burn off, they get stored as fat.

It's sadly - alarmingly - true that just as we have increased the amount and kinds of fattening foods we eat on a regular basis since 1980, we have also decreased the amount and kinds of regular physical activity we used to get - both as children and adults.

We DO tend to drive places that we once would have walked to. Our children are no longer scheduled into daily physical education classes for the entire school year, every year. Many more jobs are non-active and sedentary than ever before. Modern conveniences like remote controls and cell phones even diminish the time we walk around our own homes.

And then there is screen time.

The average American child spends nearly five hours per day in front of  a tv screen, says the Kaiser Family Foundation, and that doesn't count time in front of a computer monitor. The average home has 4 television sets, and it's not just the kids who are watching them. On average, adults watch four hours of television and then spend another four hours a day with computers, video games, iPods and cell phones. We are "wired" to watch  - and our waistlines are suffering for it.

Alternatives to passive screen use like DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and the Wi Fit game systems make time in front of a tv screen active, fun and calorie-burning, but of course, have an expense.  Good old-fashioned outside play, walking, running and biking, on the other hand, are virtually free.
Click on the Kidnetics link to read about more ways to limit screen time and promote physical activity in your family

So a simple prescription for weight loss is one of the first sentences I wrote in one of the very first blog posts: Eat less ~ Move more!

Why Does America Have an Obesity Epidemic?

If you are or have ever been concerned about your weight - in other words, if you are reading this blog - you have no doubt noticed the abundance of diet and nutrition books and programs on the market . It's an industry that accounts for $40 billion in sales annually. The newest spin-off of our weighty crisis is books that are being written and published to help explain how we got in this fix to begin with.

A recent New Yorker article selected facts from several of these books that may give you some (ahem) food for thought!

"Eric Finkelstein is a health economist at a research institute in North Carolina. In “The Fattening of America”, written with Laurie Zuckerman, he argues that Americans started to put on pounds in the eighties because it made financial sense for them to do so. Relative to other goods and services, food has got cheaper in the past few decades, and fattening foods, in particular, have become a bargain. Between 1983 and 2005, the real cost of fats and oils declined by sixteen per cent. During the same period, the real cost of soft drinks dropped by more than twenty per cent.
“For most people, an ice cold Coca-Cola used to be a treat reserved for special occasions,” Finkelstein observes. Today, soft drinks account for about seven per cent of all the calories ingested in the United States, making them “the number one food consumed in the American diet.” If, instead of sweetened beverages, the average American drank water, Finkelstein calculates, he or she would weigh fifteen pounds less."
 Ordering fast, cheap food at drive-throughs as an alternative to shopping and cooking at home is another example of an action that used to be considered a "special occasion" treat but has now become a daily habit for too many of us. 

In “The End of Overeating” David A. Kessler, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration,  explains why this has contributed to our ever-expanding waistlines.
Fat, sugar, and salt are key ingredients in fast foods that are high in calories and are studied by the food industry to "hook" us into wanting more. Ever wonder why the burger, fries, and soda form the basic "meal" at a fast food restaurant? Fat, salt, sugar. We are well-programmed now to want that when we go to a fast food restaurant.

Going back to the days when most families sat down at the table to a home-cooked meal rather than opening the bag and unwrapping the burgers could be one important step in helping halt the growth of our girth. Not easy - but worth it!

The Rule of 4

A simple way to plan a low-calorie meal for lunch and dinner is to follow the rule of "4":

Choose a 9" plate - that's what is sometimes called "luncheon size" - not the over-sized plates often sold as dinner plates these days.

Divide your plate into 4 sections.

In one of the four section, place a whole grain ( brown & wild rice, barley, couscous, whole wheat roll), in the next 1/4 section, place a low-fat protein ( grilled chicken breast, turkey cutlet, Veggie burger, 3-4 ounce lean steak, brown beans). Notice that these portions will be fairly small to fit within the 1/4 sections.

Finally, place low-sugar, high-fiber vegetables - broccoli, spinach, green beans,cabbage, cauliflower, squash, carrots,  in the last two sections.

There you have it! An easy "recipe" for a healthy way to plan your biggest meals of the day.

Are You A Skinny Sipper?

Fruit juices, nutrient-boosted waters, energy drinks, smoothies, protein shakes, Instant Breakfast, and liquid diet meals.....are they ever a good idea when you are trying to lose weight?

Well, sometimes yes, but mostly no. Like everything else in life, though, moderation is the key when getting your nutrients from beverages.

One of the pros for any beverage is that they are easy to measure - so you can pour a standard serving, read the label, and know exactly what you are getting.  And they are usually filling. One of the minuses, is that what you are getting may be high in calories and loaded with sugar and salt.

If you choose to drink juice, make sure you are getting 100% fruit juice - not a "juice drink" and by all means, please check the sugar content. With any bottled or canned beverage, compare the ingredients and the calorie content --- you can often save hundreds - literally -- of calories by eating a piece of fruit than drinking its counterpart in juice. An orange is also less expensive than an 16 - ounce bottle of orange juice.

There's something about chewing food that is much more satisfying than drinking a "meal."  Additionally, the fiber in whole, real food is beneficial to digestion and  helps us feel full - usually longer than a meal replacement drink.

To find out more about what kinds of liquids affect our diets in a positive or negative way, click here to view WebMD's slide show called "Best & Worst Drinks for Weight-Loss".

I just can't sign off without reminding you that pure, simple, cheap water is always a beneficial choice.

Water, Water, Everywhere...

Water is not only the most common substance on earth -- it's also the most common substance in the human body ...making up more than 60% of a person's weight.

The water in our bodies performs all kinds of tasks: transporting nutrients to the cells, keeping eyes, mouth, nose and other membranes moist, flushing toxins and waste out, maintaining temperature, lubricating joints and protecting organs. Yet many of us don't drink enough water daily from all sources to properly hydrate this wonderful system.

Add stress, exercise, or illness to your day, and it is possible to become dehydrated.  Dehydration can be uncomfortable - even causing light-headedness and muscle cramps - at worst, it can become life-threatening---that's just how important water is to our bodies.

How much water should you drink each day? Somewhere in the range of 8 - 10 eight-ounce glasses is just about right. Sounds like a lot -- and I know it is a lot more than some of us get --- but it is possible to get that - and to get it in some surprising ways.  Other liquids besides plain tap water can help you meet that quota - including fluids in watery foods like watermelon, celery and tomatoes. Tea, coffee, juice and even soda ( which I don't recommend!) help meet the 10 glasses a day goal.  But pure water, whether from a tap or bottle is the real thirst-quencher and liquid cleanser your body craves! 

When we are aiming to lose weight, water is a powerful ally!  Did you know that sometimes we think we are hungry - even craving salty foods - when in actuality we are thirsty! So when you start to get a snack, ask yourself: am I thirsty. Even drinking water before eating a snack - or a meal - can help you feel fuller and avoid over-eating.

Whether you like your water plain, or with a twist of lemon or lime: you can indulge in this calorie-free, life enhancing liquid anytime you want!

Don't Drink Your Calories

As you saw in the post about high fructose corn syrup, most soft drinks available for purchase are sweetened with some amount of that sweetener.  So are many fruit based drinks.

It's possible to drink more than 50,000 empty calories per year if you regularly have pop, fruit juice and/or sweet tea.  That converts to a lot of pounds.

I always advise people not to drink their calories Or their fruit. the vitamins and fiber in fruits is not nearly as available to us when the fruit has been processed into juice. Read the label on a carton of orange juice in comparison to the nutritional content of a whole orange and you will see what I mean.

By and large, we should be drinking water. It doesn't matter if it is tap water, spring water or bottled water; I do draw the line at the flavored waters that have a sweetener added and "vitamin" water. To me that is a waste of money, when you can get the vitamins and minerals you need from healthy whole foods.  My philosophy is to consume *real* food...that's one of the reasons I don't like pop as a daily beverage: it's a manufactured, processed product (I can't even call it a food). And did you know that unless your bottled water specifies it is spring water, it is probably purified water from some city's tap.  Doesn't mean it's bad -- just means you can drink your own tap water and save money and plastic.

I know several pediatricians who tell their young parents to only give their infants formula, milk or water. No juice. I applaud them!  Their reasoning is that the juice is basically a sugary drink.  Don't feel that you are depriving your young ones! They don't know what they are missing, and they are much more likely to eat the beneficial fruit itself if their taste buds don't get used to juice.

The Best Life's Bob Green (formerly Oprah's trainer!) has teamed up with Nestle to challenge Americans to replace a sugared drink each day with water.

Here's what he has to say:

Water is a good alternative for your weight management compared to sugared beverages, which may contain up to 160 calories and 40 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving.

Drinking water is a simple way to keep well-hydrated and as a consequence help maintain concentration and alertness.

Take a water break! Busy days at work, home, or even running errands can keep you from meeting your food and fluid needs. A lack of water can leave you dehydrated; even mild dehydration can drain your energy.
Stay hydrated while working out: Before you begin, drink 8 ounces of water, and then during your workout, drink about 4 to 6 ounces of water (about 5 to 7 gulps) every 15 minutes. After the workout, follow-up with another 8 ounces of water
 
Click here to find out more or to join the more than 32,000 Americans who have taken the Pure Life Challenge to replace their pop with zero-calorie water!

High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Godzilla of Added Sugars?

If you took part in the detective game of looking for sugars on the labels of foods in your kitchen, did you find many foods that listed high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)as an ingredient? And if you did, was it one of the first ingredients on the label?

If so, those are foods I will suggest that you consider crossing off your grocery list and finding a less sweet substitute. High fructose corn syrup has only been around in our food production since the 1970's. It is a cheap, easy to produce, and easy to transport sweetener that helps foods stay moist longer.. Because it is so sweet to our taste buds, manufacturers can use less of it to sweeten a soft drink, for example, than they would if they used old-fashioned sucrose (white sugar), saving money on every can they sell.  That wouldn't be such a bad thing were it not for the consequences that many nutritionists and scientists associate with the rise of HFCS in our diets.

There are many studies in progress testing high fructose corn syrup and its affect on human metabolism and its influence on obesity.  Many scientists are already convinced that HFCS has a leading role in the rise of obesity in America.

HFCS is a corn-based product that is super sweet. Our bodies react differently to HFCS than they do to other sugars, causing problems with our blood glucose levels, insulin resistance and other hormone responses - particularly involving the hormone leptin that signals us that we are "full" or satisfied.

DiabetesHealth.com cites these problems that are believed to be caused by too much HFCS:
It can lead to higher caloric intake


It can lead to an increase in bodyweight


It fools your body into thinking it’s hungry


It increases the amount of processed foods you eat, thereby decreasing your intake of nutrient-dense foods


It may increase insulin resistance and triglycerides

What do I think? I consider HFCS to be to sugar what trans-fat is to regular saturated fat: it makes something we have to be careful about even more dangerous. I think it is interesting that the wide-spread use of HFCS in our foods - even foods that have other sweeteners in them - coincides with the time that obesity rates began to rise dramatically in America.  Where can we find large amounts of HFCS?

That's right....High Fructose Corn Syrup is the ONLY sweetener in all regular soft drinks in America. And how much sweetener are we getting per serving when we drink a can of Coke or Pepsi?

Yep, that's right....the equivalent to 10 teaspoons of sugar in a regular size can.  But don't you find that these days, that middle bottle is what usually comes out of the vending machine? And, if we buy it, we usually drink it.

I once worked with a patient who made only one lifestyle change: he stopped going through a drive-through restaurant on his way to work. His habit was to get a large Dr. Pepper every morning, five mornings a week. This meant he stopped buying his very large cup of regular Dr. Pepper every work day. He just quit doing it. Started drinking coffee and water at work instead. After 9 or 10 months went by, he noticed he had lost 25 pounds.Without trying. Just by eliminating one source of hidden, added sugar. I guess we can say, he defeated the Godzilla of sugars!

To read more about HFCS at DiabetesHealth.com, click here

Is Sugar Hiding from You?

Even when you read a food label, you can be fooled into consuming more sugar than you think you are unless you know what words to look for beyond the obvious one: sugar!
I'd like to challenge you to an exercise right in your own kitchen.

Look at the labels on food packages in your cupboards, pantry, freezer, and refrigerator. Every food label has its ingredients listed right below the nutritional values.

Your mission is to read the ingredients on each food to see if you find any of the words on this list (courtesy of health.msn.com):

Brown sugar
Cane juice and cane syrup.
Confectioners' sugar
Corn sweeteners and corn syrup
Dextrose
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
Granulated white sugar
High fructose corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltose
Malt syrup
Molasses
Sucrose
Syrup
White sugar
Surprised? That's 19 different ways to say "sugar"!
 
If you are like me, you may be amazed that so many foods that we don't even think of as being "sweet" have more than one kind of sugar as an ingredient!
 
It can take a little time to learn which brands have the least amounts of hidden and added sugars, but it will pay off health-wise and weight-wise, to comparison shop for grocery items that are lowest in all kinds of added sweeteners.
 

The "Stop Light" Carbohydrate: Added Sugars

Sugar  is the simplest carbohydrate we have and the biggest boost to our blood glucose levels we can get from food. Need a quick zap of energy: most of us choose a sugary carb-rich food. Some times we don't even know we are doing it!

Many carbohydrate foods have some kind of sugar in them.Even milk! We may think of milk as a protein food - actually it belongs to the dairy food group - but if you read the label on a carton of any kind of cow's milk, you will see each serving has about  12 grams of carbohydrate, and nearly all of those are labelled as sugars in the form of lactose ( simply put, lactose is milk sugar)

You can view the carbohydrate content of each type of cow's milk by re-visiting the blogpost about the 1% or less campaign.

Of course lactose occurs naturally in milk, just as fructose occurs naturally in fruit. The fructose in fruit is why we call fruit a simple carbohydrate...the sugar in most fruit is released to our blood streams quickly.

But what happens when berries or apples are processed into juice or jelly?  If you look at food labels you may find that their natural sweeteners are enhanced by added sugar in the form of sucrose, maltose, honey, corn syrup or - worse yet - high fructose corn syrup.

The same thing happens to many, if not most processed foods: including breads of all kinds, cereals, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables, juices and "juice drinks", sauces and spreads like ketchup, salsa and peanut butter, frozen "meals," and yogurt. Most of us can handle the naturally occurring sugars in our carbohydrate foods, but the added sugars have made a big contribution to our nation's weight problem. I am astonished that sugar is sometimes added to foods that are already sweet - or that don't seem to need more sugar at all!

Added sugar provides lots of calories in very little food and virtually all of those calories are empty. That's why the refined sugar carbs earn a "Red Light'!

Refined Carbs:Proceed with Caution

Yesterday we gave the "green light" to complex carbohydrates: the whole grains and colorful vegetables and fruits.  Have you noticed that I always say "vegetables and fruits" instead of "fruits and vegetables"? There's a reason for that.....

Complex carbohydrates like oats, whole wheat, navy and pinto beans and most vegetables are full of FIBER. Fiber is our nutrition and weight loss friend!  These carbs that get absorbed slowly into our systems, avoiding spikes in blood sugar levels. Some fruits are also fiber-rich, especially those whose skins we eat, but some - like bananas - are very sweet.

WEbMD explains the connection between fiber and weight management this way:



Why Fiber in Carbohydrates Counts



Fiber slows down the absorption of other nutrients eaten at the same meal, including carbohydrates
This slowing down may help prevent peaks and valleys in your blood sugar levels, reducing your risk for type 2 diabetes.


Certain types of fiber found in oats, beans, and some fruits can also help lower blood cholesterol.


As an added plus, fiber helps people feel full, adding to satiety.

The problem is that most Americans don't eat a diet high in fiber. We tend to eat lots of carbs....but usually it's lots of refined carbs. What's a refined carbohydrate and why is it so bad? 

Some carbohydrate foods are processed to look or taste a certain way: they are peeled, hulled, milled, bleached and sweetened -- in that refining process, the fiber is stripped away. White flour is probably our guiltiest carb..and if you think about it, many of us eat a muffin or white toast for breakfast, a sandwich or burger on a white bun at lunch and then have white rice or pasta for dinner.  Throw in a couple cookies or snack cake, crackers or pretzels, and you have nothing but a steady stream of fiber-poor, refined carb foods all day long. And these refined carbs can keep your blood sugar level spiking all day.

So those are the foods we want to eat in moderation. They're not green light foods - which may take some adjustment on your part if that carb-scenario sounded familiar to you. The refined, white flour/white sugar foods and the super sweet fruits are yellow, caution-light foods!

Making Sense of Carbs

If you look again at the list of carbohydrate foods in the last post, it can seem overwhelming to sort them out and know which foods it's wiser to eat. You may have heard people say "don't eat any white foods" or that they are going on a low-carb/ high protein diet, or that they are carb-counting. We'll try to apply the KISS principle here, and keep it all a little simpler!

Let's start with the carbohydrates you want to eat the most of: the complex carbs.  This group includes "whole" grains like oats, barley, brown rice and whole wheat. They are complex because they have not been bleached or had their fiber-rich coatings "refined" away.  These are the grains you want to choose when you choose grains.You can be comfortable having one of these complex carb choices at eat meal.

Other complex carbs include vegetables and fruits - great sources of vitamins C, A, calcium, iron and other minerals - and - again! - FIBER!  A point to remember is that the more colorful the vegetable or fruit (red, orange, dark green or dark blue) the more vitamin-packed it is likely to be. Using color as your cue,  it follows that blueberries, greens like spinach, bell peppers, broccoli, raspberries, carrots, yams, and green beans are going to be our fruit and vegetable high-fiber powerhouses. Again, you can choose from this group at every meal.

Notice I didn't list potatoes and corn there? That's because they are vegetables that fall into the starch category.  Starchy veggies are as detrimental to our weight loss program as other high calorie starches like pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies, dinner rolls and some breakfast cereals. So limit them if you are watching your weight.

When you make your shopping list this week, make sure you have included the non-starchy complex carbs we've listed!