Like it or not, calories count

I think by now most people have heard about the theory that calorie restriction leads to a longer life. But in case you haven't, I'll sum it up for you. There have been some animal studies that suggest that eating a low-calorie diet can slow down the aging process, preventing a myriad of diseases and extending the lifespan. Interestingly, it seems that it is calorie restriction specifically and not just leanness or weight control that provides the benefit. Physical activity, while helpful, did not slow down aging the way that calorie restriction did in the animal studies.

An article in the New York Times discusses the concept and a new study that seeks to evaluate the hypothesis in humans. It seems very likely that the results will be positive. Participants interviewed for the Times article have lost weight and have greatly improved their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

I have to say, I'm not sure why people seem to think this approach is so severe, when the people in this study are eating 1600-2500 calories a day. It's hardly a starvation diet. And if it can help us live a lot longer and healthier, isn't it worth it?

No one made you eat it

An interesting article from Newsweek, "America's War on the Overweight," tries to answer the question, "Why does an overweight country hate people who are overweight?" It is a bit of paradox that in a country where the majority of people are overweight and one in three is obese, there still seems to be a lot of anti-fat sentiment, especially in the media. Much of this sentiment stems from the perception that weight is controllable, and therefore people who are overweight lack self-control and must be lazy and self-indulgent. Although I tend to agree with the first part of this (weight is controllable), I don't think that the latter conclusion follows necessarily from it. But that tirade is for another post...

What is so bizarre about Americans' disdain for the overweight is that so many Americans are in that category. How can we berate others for doing what we ourselves do? The writers of this article hit the nail on the head:

Some of it has to do with the psychological phenomenon known as the fundamental attribution error, a basic belief that whatever problems befall us personally are the result of difficult circumstances, while the same problems in other people are the result of their bad choices. Miss a goal at work? It's because the vendor was unreliable, and because your manager isn't giving you enough support, and because the power outage last week cut into premium sales time. That jerk next to you? He blew his quota because he's a bad planner, and because he spent too much time taking personal calls.

Sadly, very few people recognize this inherent bias in our judgment of others and ourselves. Of course, I think when it comes to weight control, probably the majority of people DO blame themselves and their own choices. I think they are wrong about that, too. They think that if they just had enough will power or if they weren't so lazy, they wouldn't be where they are. Unfortunately for them, it isn't as simple as that and instead of providing motivation, this self-guilt-tripping only promotes more failure.

Those who doubt that other forces outside the individual are at work in creating the obesity epidemic, I ask you this: What has caused the rapid increase in obesity in our country and around the world in just the last few decades?? Have we all just gotten lazier and lost our self-control? That seems unlikely to me. And what would explain the difference in obesity rates between states? For example, Alabama has an obesity rate of 31.4% while Colorado's rate is a "mere" 18.5%. So are people in Alabama less virtuous than people in Colorado? It just doesn't make sense to me. I believe, as I've said before, that we should be pointing the finger at changes in the environment and in culture and lifestyles, rather than at individuals.

My favorite salad dressing

Okay, so I've been slacking on the blog posts. I think it's because all of my posts end up being these long, drawn-out diatribes that require a lot of thought and research to write. It's a little daunting to try to keep that up on a regular basis. So, I think I'll give shorter, less-intense posts a try. For today, I'd like to share with the world (or my 6 readers at least), a recipe for the best low-fat salad dressing I've tasted. It is based loosely on a dressing I tried at a local vegetarian restaurant, Claire's Cornercopia. Unfortunately, I don't really measure things, so it's not so much a recipe as a list of ingredients, which you can adjust to your own taste:

nonfat plain yogurt (Greek or regular)
salt, pepper
lime juice (or lemon juice, alternatively)
fresh or dried herbs - I recommend dill and/or chives

I prefer my dressing to be simple, as above, but feel free to add as many additional flavors as you like.

The best thing about this dressing is that it has only 22.5 calories per 1/4 cup and 0g fat. This is compared to the typical commercial dressing which has 290 calories and 31g of fat!! So you can feel free to drench your salad in this dressing with NO guilt whatsoever.

Creatures of Habit

I am currently reading a phenomenal book: The end of overeating, by David A. Kessler, MD. In it, Kessler talks about the way that many of us have been conditioned to overeat, as a result of food industry practices and marketing and our brain circuitry.

The better half of the book explains the many factors that drive eating behavior and the ways in which certain stimuli (such as food ingredients or cues in the environment) can lead people to eat too much and eat the wrong things, typically over and over again. But toward the end of the book he finally gets to the most important issue: how do we use this information to stop the pattern of overeating?

One thing Kessler discusses is the importance of rules. According to him, if you want to lose weight, you must establish specific rules about how you will behave in situations where your are tempted by food. For example, you could make a rule for yourself that you will not visit fast food restaurants or that you will not eat fried foods. Then, you must practice adhering to this rule. The more times that you drive by the fast food restaurant or turn down the fries, the easier it will get. The conditioned response that you developed to that food will weaken.

I think this approach is somewhat contrary to popular opinion that "everything in moderation" is okay or that depriving yourself of indulgent foods will only make you crave them more. Dr. Kessler and the research he cites as support for his theory suggests that the opposite is true: the less you eat something, the less you give in to your desires, the less you will want them. I have to agree with him. I am still trying to figure out what "the answer" to long-term sustainable weight loss is, but I think this comes pretty close.

My own personal experience is explained well by this notion that abiding by consciously-made rules can essentially de-condition the subconscious mind, and thereby change behavior. About 6 1/2 years ago, I decided to get serious about losing weight (I had about 10 lbs to lose). I made strict rules about what I would eat, and followed them. As time went by, I found that it was easier and easier to resist the foods I used to find irresistable. Now, I have reached the point where I need to GAIN weight and am struggling to do so because eating small, low-calorie, and low-fat meals has become such a deeply entrenched habit. It takes much more mental effort for me to choose to eat an ice cream sundae than it does for me to choose to eat a bowl of broccoli.

I think that if others can adopt this same practice of setting rules and sticking to them, no exceptions, no moderation, they would reach the point where the rules are no longer needed; declining dessert is effortless and eating vegetables is an almost unbreakable habit.

Overeating, not lack of physical activity, blamed for obesity

While most experts agree that diet and physical activity are BOTH important when it comes to the etiology of obesity, there is a definite dichotomy between the diet-pushers and the exercise-pushers. It seems to me that everyone takes a side, believing that one or the other is just a little more significant. I have made no secret of the fact that I am firmly in the diet camp; I think that overeating leads to obesity far more frequently and with more certainty than being sedentary does. My evidence: I rarely exercise with any vigor (a horrible thing, I know), yet my low-calorie and mostly healthful diet keeps my weight consistently low. I also know many individuals who are very active and still can't seem to lose weight.

Now, it appears there is some research to back up my claim. A recent study found that an increase in calorie consumption is more likely the main cause of the increase in obesity rates seen in recent years. I have to admit, I question the researchers' methodology here, but because their results affirm my own bias, I'll look past it.

Regardless of what studies show, it is simply common sense that eating well should be the top priority for anyone trying to lose weight. It's a lot harder to exercise away a few hundred calories than it is to just not eat them in the first place!

Mistakes people make

I'm not sure why I'm thinking about this today, but I felt compelled to explain why one of the most common eating habits that people have is ALL WRONG. I am referring to the tendency to eat tiny little meals for breakfast and lunch and then eat a big, multi-course dinner at 8:00 at night and then go to bed 2 hours later.

When you think about it, it just doesn't make any sense. When you wake up in the morning, you've been fasting for at least 8-10 hours and you're getting ready to start a whole day's worth of activity. Why would you think that what your body needs is just a cup of coffee? Even if you eat breakfast, you're probably eating something like a yogurt, a granola bar, bowl of cereal, bagel, donut, or some other carbolicious 3-bites-and-it's-gone food. For one thing, most of these popular breakfast items are not enough calories. Yup, you read that correctly. NOT ENOUGH. Secondly, they also happen to be high in carbohydrates and/or refined sugar but low in protein, healthy fats, and often fiber. These are the things that give you lasting energy and make you feel full.

For many people, this starvation continues through lunch, where typical choices include salad, soup, sandwiches and other "light" fare. After all, we don't want to blow all of our calories by mid-day do we?

Then 3:00 hits. And the munchies start to set in. The next thing you know, you're grabbing whatever junky snack you can out of the vending machine and wondering how you'll ever stick to a diet when they all make you so hungry!

When dinner rolls around, the only "real" meal most people eat all day, it's a big production: big portions of meat, starch, and sometimes a veggie (like a salad drowned in a few hundred calories' worth of dressing. And of course, you have to save room for dessert. Now having eaten all of those calories, you do the only reasonable thing: go to sleep.

Does this seem backwards to anyone else but me??? Your body needs the most energy in the morning, not in the evening. Accordingly, breakfast should be the biggest meal of the day. Lunch should be moderate in size but still pretty hearty and dinner should bear closer resemblance to a snack than a holiday feast. I realize this is a difficult concept for people to grasp. Most of us have grown up eating this way and it has become part of our culture. But starving all day and binging at night is a recipe for weight gain. And if you try to lose weight while maintaining this habit, you will set yourself up for struggle and failure.

Yippee!! Another good blog for healthy food for kids!

I was so disappointed when the Lunch Nugget blogger stopped posting, as I thought this blog was a great resource for parents. But it has been brought to my attention that there is a new kid in the blogosphere posting healthy meals for babies, toddlers, and kids. It's called Weelicious (it's even got a cute name!). I couldn't agree more with the philosphy of the talented mom who writes this blog. She ssays of her son, Kenya: "Kenya only knows what I feed him. If I gave him McDonalds, he’d love it, but if I give him pesto chicken, that’s what he’ll crave." BINGO! I say this all the time. Unfortunately, I don't have any real-life experience with parenting to back it up, but this woman does!