Weight Loss Category

Making Healthy Holiday Food Choices

It’s estimated that Americans gain at least one pound, and up to five pounds of weight, between Thanksgiving and New Years.  Repeat that for a few years and we look less and less like our high school yearbook photo.

But that doesn’t have to be the case, if we learn what foods to embrace and what foods to avoid.  Here’s a list of both:
Healthy Holiday Foods

Cranberries
The phytochemicals that impart the red color to cranberries are powerful anti-aging antioxidants. They also reduce the ability of bacteria to stick to our cells thereby reducing the risk of urinary infections.

Apples and Applesauce
Contain heart healthy fiber and compounds like quercetin and ellagic acid that are powerful antioxidants and protect against cardiovascular disease and inflammation which is involved in almost all chronic disease.

Dark Chocolate
Seventy percent or more cocoa content contains the most flavonols — helpful plant substances that help protect the heart and arteries.

Green Beans
Naturally low in calories, string beans are loaded with vitamin K, which helps protect your bones. Also, a good source of Vitamin C and Vitamin A. But skip heavy sauces with this vegetable. Try beans lightly tossed with olive oil and lemon.

Nuts
Nuts are chock-full of heart-healthy unsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. 

Pumpkin Pie
This rich orange vegetable contains carotenoids for making Vitamin A in the body and fighting free radicals. Pumpkin is also a good source of potassium and fiber.  Beware: most pies are loaded with sugar – use artificial sweetener instead of sugar for a lower calorie dessert.

Yams & Sweet Potatoes
Yams offer carotenoids, potassium, Vitamin C, and fiber. Candied yams are high in sugar. Bake with a bit of brown sugar, or with artificial sweetener, for the taste without the calories. 

And some additional choices that are health and weight friendlier:

• Whole grains, such as whole-wheat rolls, wild rice, and quinoa
• Shrimp, lobster, and other steamed seafood
• Plain or lightly dressed vegetables
• Meat and poultry without the gravy
• Salad greens (lightly dressed)
• Fresh fruit

Foods to Avoid During the Holidays With Possible Substitutes

Swedish meatballs – instead, try some cold cuts like ham or turkey

EggNog – instead, try a cinnamon or other spiced tea

Stuffed potatoes – instead, eat a regular baked potatoe or red potatoes

Creamed spinach – instead, spinach without the cream or broccoli

Pot Roast – instead, breast of turkey or sliced steak

Fruitcake – instead, a fruit tart

Pecan Pie – instead, a fruit tart

Cheese Cake – instead, a slice of pound cake

Croissant – instead, some whole grain bread

Hot Buttered Rum – just leave out the butter, and then spice with nutmeg

Cinnamon Rolls – instead, a slice of toasted whole grain bread with a bit of jelly

Ice Cream – instead, sorbet

Making sensible diet choices is easier than it seems and there’s no time like the present to start.

Here’s to a fun, tasty holiday.

Making healthy diet choices is easier than it seems and there’s no time like the present to start.

Here’s to a fun, tasty and healthy holiday season!

Curt Hendrix M.S. C.C.N. C.N.S.

Healthy Habits Decrease Cancer Risk

The International Agency for Research on Cancer projects that the number of people with cancer will increase by 75% by the year 2030 as we continue the unhealthy habits of our “Westernized” lifestyle and as developing countries adopt our lifestyle.

As developing countries become more affluent they also pick up the bad habits of fast foods, huge portions, poor diets, and less exercise.

In affluent countries like ours, cancer is the 1^st or 2^nd leading cause of death, but so many of us believe that despite our being over-weight, making poor food choices, eating way too many calories, and doing far less exercise than we should, cancer will happen to somebody else…..NOT ME!

Some of us feel “good health” is a right to which we are entitled, and  should not have to “work” to stay healthy.  I think good health is a goal that we all should strive for and like other goals, something that we have to consciously “work” at to achieve and maintain.

15 Things To Do To Decrease Your Risk of Developing Cancer:

1-     Eat vegetables – Especially broccoli and broccoli sprouts, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, and carrots

2-     Avoid charbroiled meats, processed meats and packaged meats

3-     Consume small amounts of berries like blueberries or black raspberries a few times a week.

4-     Cut way back on your daily sugar intake.  Reduce soda and fruit juice intake and instead replace with sparkling mineral water.  Reduce dessert to a treat that you eat just once or twice a week and even then in small amounts

5-     Take a daily multiple vitamin

6-     Daily consumption of a turmeric (95% curcumin) supplement at 1000-1500 mg/day and a green tea supplement (50% EGCG) 1000-1500 mg/day

7-     Daily consumption of 500 mg. of ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

8-     Exercise both with weight for resistance and aerobically. For your aerobic exercise, spend 90 seconds at a moderate pace and then increase to a very challenging pace for 30 seconds.  Work up to doing this cycle 6-8 times, 3 days a week.

9-     Make salads a mainstay in your diet and use healthy dressings like vinaigrette or balsamic.

10-  Make additive-free chicken and turkey breast your primary sources of meat

11- Consume at least 1500 mg/day of the omega-3 essential fatty acids  EPA and DHA

12-  Eat salmon or tuna at least once or twice a week

13- Get lots of fiber into your diet, from flaxseeds, psyllium, high fiber cereals and vegetables

14- Do not smoke

15- Use protection when in the sun

These healthy habits will go along way if you make them part of your lifestyle and daily routine.
To the best of heatlh,

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

It probably comes as no surprise, to any of you who are even a bit health conscious, that Americans are not the picture of health. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) state that over 50% of Americans are over-weight and it is predicted by year 2030 that close to 50% of Americans will be obese.

I have written in previous articles that excess weight is your enemy and increases the risks of developing hypertension and most chronic degenerative diseases.  I’ve also pointed out that “all weight is not the same”!  (links to past articles below)

For example, if you are exceptionally muscular, though your weight may classify you as being over-weight for your height, you do not have the same degree of risk of someone who weighs what you weigh but has a body fat percentage that is 10-20 points higher than yours.

So weight alone can be a misleading indicator of risk!  I have also written that the “location” of your weight plays a BIG role in just how dangerous your extra weight is to you.

Based upon current research and understanding, excess weight around your waist and belly area is much more dangerous to your health than excess weight around your hips, thighs, arms and back.

The fat cells (adipocytes) in this area seem to generate more hormones and other chemicals that can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, obesity and even cancer.

Therefore measurement of your body weight or your Body Mass Index (a ratio of your weight to height) does not tell the whole story because it doesn’t take into consideration where your excess weight is located.

WAIST-TO-HIP RATIO

It may turn out that the “waist-to-hip” ratio is a better index of increased health risk because it is comparing the excess weight you carry in the “dangerous waist/belly” area to the weight you carry below this area.

It’s quite simple to calculate. Just divide your waist measurement (in either inches or centimeters) by your hip measurement.

Place the tape measure so that is crosses your belly button when taking your waist measurement and measure your hips around the widest area.

For men a waist to hip ration of .95 or above is undesirable.  For women, a ratio of .80 or above is undesirable.

Also for men, it is thought that a waist measurement of 40 inches or above is too high and that for women a measurement of 35 or above is too high.

A recent study done at the University of Minnesota found that belly fat (abdominal obesity) was associated with increased risk of “sudden cardiac death.”  According to the CDC, “sudden cardiac death” causes 250,000 deaths a year.

There is no “magic” way to just cut back specifically on your abdominal fat.  You’ve heard it before:

• Cut back on simple sugars – i.e. desserts and sugary soft drinks
• Cut back on daily calorie intake.  You must consume on average less than 2000 calories a day to lose weight (unless you are doing a lot of aerobic, calorie burning exercise)
• Exercise helps to add to weight loss that occurs with calorie restriction. Try interval training (walk, cycle or jog for 3-4 minutes at a moderate pace, then for 30 seconds increase your speed to your absolute maximum, then return to the moderate pace for another 90 seconds. Then once again increase to your max for 30 seconds. You may only be able to do this cycle one or two times at the beginning (depending upon what kind of aerobic shape you are in), but pretty quickly you will find that you can get up to 5-8 complete cycles.

Couple this with reasonable caloric restriction and the fat will disappear faster than you thought possible.

*Before starting any exercise regimen, confirm with your physician that it is safe for you to do.

Curt Hendrix M.S. C.C.N.  C.N.S.

A group of men and women were asked to examine photographs of two different women who were the same age and height.  One of the women weighed 105 lbs. and the other woman weight 120 lbs.

When questioned which women looked thinner and younger, the group of men and women examining the photos, consistently said the 120 lb. woman looked thinner and younger.

Interestingly enough, when the group was showed just the faces of the two women in the photos, they thought both women were of similar age.

So why would the heavier of the two women look younger and thinner in a full length photo?

Believe it or not, the factor that made the heavier woman look both younger and thinner was her POSTURE!

It’s not surprising that between hunching over computers, watching TV, picking up kids and packages, poor mattresses, standing in line and stress, (tightening our shoulders, neck and back muscles) that our posture suffers.

When it suffers, your gut looks wider and can actually create a pot-belly look. This clearly affects others perception of you. It is very important to remember that poor posture during sitting is of crucial importance because it can eventually negatively affect your standing posture.

Posture expert, Jane Novak, suggests that the worst culprit is the constant hunching we do when working on computers.  She says that negative permanent structural change in our vertebrae and back pain can occur if we don’t do something about it.

What I have found to be the fastest and easiest way to correct both sitting and standing posture and instantly make you look 10-15 pounds thinner, taller and appear, generally more attractive, is a quick adjustment that Novak recommends and I call it a “sternum lift”.

The “sternum lift” will immediately begin to realign your joints, muscles and bones to keep you upright and prevent your ribcage from pushing down on your mid-section, preventing you from looking fatter and pot-bellied.

The “sternum lift” literally takes just a few seconds and you should remind yourself to do it many times during the day when sitting or standing.

The sternum is the bone in the middle part of your chest. By raising it up an inch or two, it prevents your rib-cage from collapsing on your abdomen which prevents it from bulging and looking wider, while at the same time prevents rounding out of your lower back.

By lifting your sternum upwards, you will make your waist and belly look many inches smaller and create a longer, leaner and more youthful looking figure.

Now that you are aware of it, notice how many times during the day your sternum is lowered, your shoulders are hunched forward, your lower back is rounded and your rib-cage is pressing or resting on your stomach.

The “sternum lift” is simply the fastest, easiest and most effective adjustment you can make to dramatically improve your posture and look thinner, healthier, more attractive and younger.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

A recently published study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that rates of obesity are 33% less in people who smoke marijuana at least three times a week compared to non-smokers of marijuana.

The reporting of this study made me smile.  First of all, don’t people who smoke marijuana get the munchies and wouldn’t that make them susceptible to weight-gain not weight-loss?

In fact, cannabis (marijuana) is given to cancer patients to help to increase their appetites. So, it is unclear as to why frequent smokers of marijuana are less obese than non-smokers.

One theory is that replacing what may be a compulsive habit of eating too much with pot smoking, may be the reason frequent pot smokers tend to be less obese.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

You are probably aware of the alarming percentage of Americans that are over-weight or even obese. In no small way, the amounts of sugar that have crept into our diets from sources like sugary beverages, cereals and deserts, have not only rendered us over-weight, but under healthy with type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance increasing like never before.

Articles and dieticians often speak about the blood sugar raising ability of the different kinds of carbohydrates in various foods that we may choose to eat.  Carbohydrates can be simple sugars like sucrose (which is a combination of glucose and fructose) or fructose (which is the sugar found in fruits that has its own set of issues) or complex carbohydrates like starches (which are just long chains of glucose attached to one another) and finally dietary fiber (which is indigestible by our bodies, so therefore, does not raise blood sugar).

The term that helps us to understand how much carbohydrates are in foods and raise blood sugar, is called “glycemic index”, (GI).   GI is calculated by taking 50 grams of a specific carbohydrate found in a food and measuring how much it raises blood sugar compared to 50 grams of pure glucose.

So for example, if the glycemic index of a carbohydrate in carrots was 78 this would mean that 50 grams of it raised blood sugar, 78% of how much the same amount of glucose raised blood sugar.

Foods with a GI below 55 are considered low GI foods.  GI’s between 55-70 are considered intermediate GI foods and foods with a GI above 70 are considered high GI foods.

This is important information, but you need to know and understand that sometimes even the best of intentions can go awry.

By this I mean, knowing the GI of a particular food is only part of the story.  This is because “quantity counts”! You will recall that I mentioned above that GI is calculated by comparing how much an equal amount of a carbohydrate in a food (50grams) raises blood sugar compared to 50 grams of glucose.

The GI of any particular carbohydrate found in a given food, is a number that is a percentage relative to glucose.  What it doesn’t tell us, is how much of the carbohydrate is actually in a given sized serving of the food.

What we really want to know and monitor in order to lose weight and avoid diabetes or insulin resistance and the diseases like obesity, heart disease and cancer, they can lead to, is the absolute, real life amount of increase in blood sugar, eating a specific sized portion of a given food will cause. Not its relative percentage compared to 50 grams of glucose.

Percentages can be very deceiving.  I could say that I save 30% of my income.  This is an impressive percentage but if I earn $10,000 a year, it is $3,000.

On the other hand, I could save only 10% of my income but if I earn $100,000, the savings is $10,000, more than 3 times greater in absolute dollars.

Well, the same thing applies to GI, it is a percentage, it does not tell you the absolute increase in blood sugar a given sized portion of a specific food will cause.   It doesn’t do this because it doesn’t take into consideration the absolute amount of the carbohydrate, actually found in the food.

This is where the concept of glycemic load comes in.(GL)   Knowing and monitoring the GL, which you can get from charts on the internet and one sample is provided below, of the foods you eat will get you far down the path to a much slimmer and healthier you.

The GL of a food is calculated from its GI times the actual amount by weight of the carbohydrate that is present in a given sized portion divided by 100.

Think about it, if a food has a glycemic index of 20 that is very low!  50 grams of it only raises blood sugar by 20% of what an equal weight of glucose raised blood sugar.  What if the weights are not equal?

What if you eat 5 times the amount by weight of that food, so instead of 50 grams, which is the weight used to calculate GI, you eat 250 grams (a little more than ½ of a pound)? Well then your blood sugar would raise the same amount as eating 50 grams of glucose because 5X20= 100.

Glycemic load gives you real life, very valuable blood sugar information about the size of the portions of each food you choose.  It enables you to limit portion sizes so that you control blood sugar and really establish a powerful regimen under which you can lose substantial amounts of weight, while avoiding diabetes, heart disease, cancer and many other chronic diseases.

Avoiding the effects of too much sugar in the body is very anti-aging as well.  Both your internal organs and you skin will benefit tremendously.

Below is a sample chart of glycemic load of certain foods. Additional charts can be found on the internet just Google glycemic load.

I advise you to try to average no higher than 50 in your GL food choices.  So if you choose to splurge and eat a desert with a GL of 80 try to offset it with an equal number of calories of a food with a 20 GL while keeping your total calories in the 2000 calorie per day range if you are a woman of average physical activity. (As low as 1500 for faster weight loss)  For men the caloric intake, depending upon muscle mass and physical activity should probably be in the 2400-2800 calorie per day range. (Around 1800-2000 for faster weight loss)

*High in empty calories     **Low-calorie and nutritious foods

The 4 factors are:

• ·        Not Smoking
• ·        Nutritional Pattern:  Eating Mediterranean Diet Type Foods
• ·        Physical Activity for at least 30 minutes a day
• ·        Body Weight- keeping Body Mass Index (BMI) between 18 to 25.

The study started in 1986 and included over 120,000 men and women from ages 55-69.  It studied the risk of premature death in people who both controlled these 4 factors and those who didn’t.

Women who controlled these factors had the same risk of premature death as women who were 15 years younger but didn’t.  To put it another way, a 55 year old women who controlled these 4 factors had the same risk of premature death as a 40 year old woman, who didn’t.

A 65 year old man who controlled them had the same risk of premature death as a 56.5 year old man who didn’t.

The exciting implication of this research is that for those of you who really want to lose weight and want to do it properly, 3 of the 4 life extending factors will automatically be incorporated into your weight loss regimen: Exercise, nutritional pattern and reduction of BMI. (The 4^th factor, smoking, though obviously recommended, is a separate personal decision).

To calculate your BMI divide your weight in pounds by your height in inches times itself and multiply that amount by 703.

For example, a woman who weighs 140 lbs and is 5’4” (64 inches) the calculation would be:

140 divided by 4096 (which is 64X64) = .03418 X 703 = 24 which is the BMI and in the acceptable range.

Just because the BMI is in the “healthy, acceptable” range, this doesn’t mean that a lower BMI wouldn’t be aesthetically more pleasing to some women.

If the woman in the above example experienced healthy weight loss and dropped to 120 lbs her BMI would be:

120 divided by 4096= .0293 X 703 = 20.6 the new BMI.

For those of you who don’t like doing math, the link below will automatically calculate your BMI for you.

http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/

In a subsequent article, that will be released within the next few days, some eating and exercise hints that make losing weight simpler and less of a challenge, will be discussed.

Best Health,

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N., C.N.S.

Too many carbs can lead to diabetes. Too much of the wrong kind of fats may lead to heart disease. Could gorilla eating habits (which nutritionally, in many ways are similar to human needs) be the answer to the obesity epidemic we are experiencing.

Could shifting your dietary intake of nutrient sources be the answer to not only having the body/figure you want but avoiding the diseases associated with being over-weight or obese?

Please read :  Gorilla Diet Could Explain Human Obesity Study

I’m trying to bite my tongue and not say what I truly feel about the executives who run most of our countries fast food chains.

Shareholders and eyes fixed on bottom line profits are determining the quality and size of meals that we are being offered, certainly NOT health considerations and our long-term wellness.

It’s sort of ironic that in the 1950’s the size of our cars was huge and our restaurant food portions, as you will see, were much smaller.  Now, our cars are smaller and our restaurant food portions are insanely, larger.

As you will learn in the following article, the alarming rate at which American waistlines are expanding, is affecting us in ways that we may not be aware of  (and few, if any of them, are good).

Overweight is the new normal

Products adapt to accommodate the super-sized generation

Sun Sentinel June 12, 2011

Overweight has become the new normal, and society is straining to accommodate our ever-expanding waistlines. We plant plush bottoms on wider seats in theaters and toilet stalls, drape ourselves in plus-sized clothing, even go to our eternal rest in broader coffins.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and a third, some 72 million people, are considered obese. From 1980 to 2008, obesity rates doubled for adults and tripled for children, with 17 percent, or 9 million children over 6, classified as obese.

The average American is 23 pounds heavier than the ideal body weight. Experts blame the usual bugaboos: lack of exercise and side-splitting food consumption.

“There’s definitely a new norm,” said Dr. Robert Kushner, clinical director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity at Northwestern University in Illinois. “It’s a norm that, ‘My entire family and my community is overweight, and that’s what I am.’ ”

Businesses, eyes on the bottom line, are adapting to the physical requirements of the heftier among us.

Revolving doors, for example, have widened from 10 feet to 12 feet in recent years. Scales, which seldom went over 300 pounds, now go up to 400 or 500 pounds.

Here are a few other areas in which the super-sized generation is changing our culture.

Feeding frenzy

Food portions, ever bigger, continue to grow to meet yawning appetites. New York nutritionist Lisa R. Young estimates fast-food servings are two to five times what they were in the 1950s. When it debuted 40 years ago, the Big Mac was but a wee patty of 3-ounce meat. Today, fast-food chains serve up 12-ounce burgers loaded with 1,000 calories.
When it first opened, a McDonald’s soda was 7 ounces. Now a small soft drink is 16 ounces, and convenience stores pitch a 64-ounce bucket of soda — a full half-gallon. The result: In the 1970s, an American gulped down an average of 27 gallons of soda a year. Today that figure is 44 gallons.

And sweets? Cookies today, Young says, are 700 percent larger than USDA standards. A brownie recipe from the 1960s called for 30 servings. The same recipe today calls for 16.

Garbing the girth

Clothing outlets have expanded plus-sized inventories. Bulky clothes are available for children as young as 3, and Target and Forever 21 offer plus-sized fashions for teens. Quadruple-extra-large shirts are on the rack for men with 60-inch waists.

“Vanity sizing,” in which manufacturers adjust apparel size downward so it’s more palatable for women, is spreading. A size 4 today was, 20 years ago, a size 8. Some 62 percent of American women wear a size 14 or larger.

But full-size fashion has its price: Plus-sized clothing, which uses more material, costs 10 to 15 percent more than regular apparel.

High-volume cargo

Federal officials have increased the average passenger weight for buses and commercial boats, from 150 pounds to 175 pounds for bus passengers and from 160 pounds to 185 pounds for boat passengers. Buses must be stronger and bigger to handle folks of amplitude, and boats must trim their passenger lists.

Government regulations for car seat belts, set in the 1960s, require them to fit a 215-pound man with a hip circumference of 47 inches. In 2003, however, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that more than 38 million people, or 19 percent of Americans, were too large for their seat belts. To accommodate heftier drivers, some car manufacturers include seat belts that are 18 to 20 inches longer, or offer seat belt extenders.

WHERE FAT IS LOCATED MAY BE MORE LIFE THREATENING THAN TOTAL BODY FAT

For many years you may have been reading about the importance of keeping your BMI (Body Mass Index) below 25.   Above 25 is considered over-weight and over 30 is considered obese.

But there have been many critics of using BMI to determine health and mortality (likelihood of dying) risks.  I have been one of those who questioned the true value of BMI.   BMI is a ratio comparing your weight to your height.

If one were to think about it, this is a rather general statistic and makes NO allowance for the fact that some people are just broader than others.  Some people are just more naturally muscular than others. So it is not surprising that researchers have recently confirmed that at least for patients with clogged arteries (and it’s my guess , for everyone else too) that the location of your body fat presents a much higher risk of premature death,  than an elevated BMI.

Research just recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that for people with clogged arteries, (most of us have no idea if our arteries are clogged or not, until it’s too late) that abdominal fat (belly fat) is a far superior indicator of risk of death than BMI.

The study collected data from 15,000 patients and determined that where the fat is located is more important than carrying a little extra fat throughout the body.

To put it in terms of what your figure might look like, it is better to be pear-shaped (carrying the extra weight in the hips and thighs) than it is to be apple-shaped (carrying the weight around your middle).

The double whammy would be to be apple shaped (excess belly-fat) and also have a high BMI.

So how do you know when you might be at risk, if you can’t use BMI as a measuring device?  The answer is that you can use two other measurements that are thought to be better predictors of mortality.

1-     Waist Circumference – Just take out a tape measure, make sure you measure at the belly button level and if you are a woman with a waist over 35 inches or a man with a waist over 40 inches, you are at increased risk.

2-     Waist to Hip Ratio – This time measure both your waist and your hips (measure the hips around the hip bone which protrudes from the side of the very top of your leg).  Then divide the waist measurement by the hip measurement.  For women the number should be .80 or less (that is, point eighty, less than one) and for men it should be .95 or less.

This in very important to keep in mind when considering your over all health regimen.

Curt Hendrix, M.S., C.C.N, C.N.S