Dieting and such

Here's a theory: skip focusing on which diet is best and start focusing on changing eating habits.

This translates to stop focusing on what we eat and getting the balanced diet and change to focus on how we can get people to make healthier food decisions. Are we eating because we are stressed? Do we have bad habits related to the drive through where we make a quick stop on the way home and eat the food in the car?

Researchers look at all sorts of diets - Paleo, Atkins, Weight Watchers - and compare them all. The FDA issues the nutrition pyramid which is now a plate. But does anyone stop and look at the eating habits we have developed and why we have them?

We live in a world full of light this and fat free that and a widening population. Why?

I used to work with a woman who was a fairly healthy eater at work. She did not snack, she didn't go out for donuts. But she was quite large. I never really figured out why.

Then I went on a business trip with her and  she insisted we stop at the grocery store on the way to the hotel so she could get some stuff for her room. I was happy to go and get some seltzer (my secret addiction). She bought a couple boxes of crackers and cookies - for a three day business conference. I think she went out and made another grocery run later on. I think she was an evening snacker - hence her hefty weight.

So why does a normal, bright, well educated person, sit and eat for hours at night by themselves? That is the question to answer.

If you watch the greater loser shows, people talk about their bad eating habits and are taught how to eat healthy -  no soda, no drive through, healthy snacking. They also get exercise and lose weight. But they change their eating habits. Maybe they eat more salads and fewer french fries but often these shows are accompanied by tears and emotional breakthroughs as well.

I know my weight stems from three issues I have.

1. At my job, there are more snacks than any place I have ever worked and the kitchen is right next to my office.
2. I snack after dinner which I shouldn't do. (Why did I eat that granola bar after dinner last night? I didn't have dessert is my justification and I wanted something crunchy. But I didn't need it.)
3. Sometimes I eat when I am not hungry because I am bored, stressed or in pain.

So if I can get rid of those habits, I can lose weight. I have been working on them, my weight is going in the right direction. The funny thing is I am still eating desserts sometimes and normal food. I didn't switch what I eat. I switched when I eat. My goal is to modify my eating habits so I can get to and maintain a healthy weight but still enjoy eating. I will no live on lite versions of crappy prepared food.

Maybe that's what researchers need to figure out so other people can more easily lose weight.

The Battle of The Bulge in History

I never know where I am going to end up on the internet these days. Its really amazing - even without the cat here to help - he is very helpful in websurfing.

Yesterday I found the historical battle of the bulge or "A Slim History of Dieting" on Ancestry.com (see you never know where I will end up).

Its pretty funny. I can tell you that we are much safer these days in our dieting techniques. Previous diet tips have included that fat people should move to swampy areas or "daily cold baths, lots of exercise, chastity, temperance, and hard mattresses".

Personally, I would prefer watching what I eat vs. daily cold baths and living in a swampy area.

Chemical food

I have never been a fan of what I call 'chemical food'. Well not now. I admit there was a period in my life where I lived on Tab and Diet Coke and went to fast food restaurants occasionally. (I also admit that my favorite food of this lifetime is fried clams.)

I am snickering sarcastically these days at the idea that Coca Cola is trying to reposition their artificially sweetened sodas as not being so bad. Ahem, what is that they say? Its not bad? Oh, come on.

In my personal opinion and I am neither a nutritionist nor a doctor of any sort, coke and diet coke are not health foods. A healthy food has to meet one of three rules to me: Either it has no more than five ingredients or it is handmade and full of natural ingredients or no scary, unpronounceable or unfamiliar ingredients.

This is what is in these two beverages:

Coke's official ingredients: Carbonated water, sugar, colour (caramel E150d), phosphoric acid, natural flavourings (including caffeine).

Diet Coke's official ingredients: Carbonated water, colour (caramel E150d), sweeteners (aspartame, acesulfame-K), flavourings (including caffeine), phosphoric acid, citric acid. Contains a source of phenylalanine.

They clearly fall into the category of chemical food. Phosphoric acid is a rust inhibitor, dental etchant, and a food additive. It gives food a sharper taste and slows mold and bacteria growth. But it might eat away your teeth.

Another comparison between healthy food and chemical food is yogurt. How about yoplait light vs. Fage fat free Greek yogurt.

Yoplait includes aspartame, potassium sorbate, acesulfame Potassium, Red #40, Vitamin A Acetate, Blue #1, and Vitamin D3 with a note that for Phenylketonurics that it contains phenylalanine.

Vs. the ingredients in Fage fat free Blueberry yogurt which is my preferred brand.

INGREDIENTS

STRAINED YOGURT: Grade A Pasteurized Skimmed Milk, Live Active Yogurt Cultures (L. Bulgaricus, S. Thermophilus, L. Acidophilus, Bifidus, L. Casei). BLUEBERRY FRUIT PREPARATION (20%): Blueberries, Cane Sugar, Water, Corn Starch, Contains 2% or less of: Lemon Juice Concentrate, Natural Flavor, Xanthan Gum.

So why does a better tasting and healthier product actually contain natural products and has smaller market share? Marketing monopoly? I don't know.

The best and easiest comparison for anyone is the butter vs. margerine comparison. What is in butter: cream and possibly salt.

What is in margarine (I Cant Believe its Not Butter):

Ingredients: Water, Vegetable Mono and Diglycerides (Adds a Negligible Amount of Fat), Rice Starch, Salt, Gelatin, Lactose (From Milk), Soybean Oil (Adds a Negligible Amount of Fat), Vegetable Datem (Adds a Negligible Amount of Fat), Coloring, (Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Disodium EDTA) Used to Protect Quality, Natural Soy Lecithin, Lactic Acid, Artificial Flavor, Vitamin A Palmitate, Beta Carotene (Color).
 
You can do this too - buy your bread in the fresh bakery section of the grocery store or better yet at an organic bakery vs the bread aisle  where the bread was made weeks ago and sits in little packages in a row that might have been shipped across country.

I vote with my feet and buy the healthier way. Go get a laugh and watch some of the Coke commercials for artificial sweeteners.




I find the ad somewhat offensive in that it only says two things: asparatame is safe and obesity is a big problem in the US.  If you switch to diet coke you may no longer be obese. I say save your money and drink some water.

What to eat

I am confused. In an age where the latest trend is to eat healthier food, buy local, and all that, I really do try.

My first motivator is the Mediterranean diet because it is supposed to be healthy and because I like the food. This means eating plant based food like grains, fruits and vegetables, less butter and more olive oil, less red meat and more fish and poultry. I can do this. Except my husband likes steak so when we eat red meat, I have gotten us smaller portions. This works pretty well for us.

Then there is the fibromyalgia diet which is lots of plant based food and lean protein which sounds pretty similar so that should work as well.

But then there is the arthritis diet which says lots of beans particularly ones with antioxidants like red beans, small red kidney beans, and pinto beans as well as black  beans and garbanzos. It also says to avoid the nightshade family to reduce inflammation. Night shade vegetables are tomatoes, eggplant, red bell peppers and potatoes. Some studies have shown them to contribute to increased pain in arthritis patients but this is not yet confirmed.

What is very common in the Mediterranean diet? Tomatoes, egg plant, red bell peppers and potatoes. This clearly leads to a conflict.

Also, there is the breast cancer - soy link. I hate tofu so I opt to skip it. I also avoid soy supplemented food and edamame because every time I turn around, the proverbial them change their mind if it is okay for breast cancer people to eat or not.

So if I take all this advice and summarize it. More chicken and fish, more beans and hummus. Less red peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and potatoes which could lead to a boring Mediterranean diet. Skip the tofu as well.

Meet my oncologist and her cookbook

When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer I had an oncologist who I really liked. He was nice and would explain numbers and statistics to me and give me detailed explanations on treatment options and why he chose one over the other.

At the end of my active treatment phase, he left. He was not given permission for this and I was upset. One big trauma point for cancer patients is when the active treatment portion ends and the come back and see us in six months starts. They go from caring about every sniffle to 'see-ya!'.

I was pretty stressed about the change and did not know what to expect from my new oncologist. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out how nice, compassionate and caring my new oncologist was. Over the past five years I have gotten to know her more. I have seen her speak at events as well as met with her individually.

Now I learned something more about her. She, along with other doctors, has written a cookbook for cancer patients. Now I have to get a copy of it. It is a book for people in active treatment. Its not that I am planning to go back into active treatment but I am a cookbook junkie and I am sure it will be full of good, healthy recipes.

If you are looking for a new oncologist in the Boston area, I do recommend her.

 

This is an ad for a CNN Special called "Escape Fire: the Fight to Rescue American Healthcare" which premiered last night (after my bedtime so I recorded DVRed it and will watch in the next few days).

It was included with this article titled US Manages Disease, Not Health which states that though Obama care represents change and has the goal of helping more Americans get health insurance and access to health care. But tjhat is the wrong question to answer.

They claim the real question that healthcare reform needs to answer is: "How can we improve medical care so that it's worth extending it to more people? In other words, how can we create a health care system that helps people become and stay healthy?"

Personally I would like to believe that both questions should be answered. We need everyone to have access to health insurance and health care and we need a better medical system that helps people become and stay healthy.

As this article claims more focus needs to be on prevention and keeping people healthy where treatments are less expensive and less arduous. We do need to focus on healthier life styles. More exercise - go for a walk instead of watching tv. Provide better food - meaning less processed food, fewer ingredients.

I have seen changes which help make Americans healthier by offering free annual physicals as a preventative measure. There has also been a movement coupled with the recent recession where people are eating healthier, farmers markets are showing up everywhere, and there has been public awareness of the dangers of obesity.

But we have a long way to go. We need health care reform, we need to focus on keeping people healthy, and we need financial reform in the way doctors, medical centers, and insurance companies pay and charge fees.
 

Dash - blah, blah, blah

Blah, blah, blah. Dash. Again. do you know what Dash is? Its that boring diet that won again as the best overall diet. Its called Dash or - Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension. It was developed by the NIH. It also helps reduce cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and kidney stones. Blah, blah, blah.

It focuses on limiting your sodium intake as well as the usual balanced plate of grains and fruit and vegetables. So hide the salt shaker and you will do fine. (I like the picture on CNN.com which shows a salad full of olives.)

The thought of it makes my skin crawl. It was introduced to me by a doctor who told me the high blood pressure issues I was experiencing a couple of years ago was completely my fault due to poor eating habits and didn't listen to me at all. I will probably never go on the Dash diet but I don't really use a lot of salt in my food and I eat lots of fruits, vegetables, and grains.

See what a poor bedside manner can do to a patient?

And the best commercial, easiest to follow and all that diet is Weight Watchers, which I sort of live by anyway. You can see more at US News & World Report.

Diet, schmiet. I'm trying. The scale is slowly going in the right direction which is a good thing. We finally are almost rid of all the junk food/candy which accumulated since Halloween - a continuous influx of junk. Now we can go back to eating healthy. And I'll skip the Dash.

Taking charge of my health

I have fallen into a rut of bad behaviors:

• I am eating too much leftover Halloween candy. This is a new 'bad' thing. We never have candy in  our house so we are taking advantage of it. We did not get the trick or treaters we thought we would  and have had candy in the house. I think I need to hide it from us until my brother comes to visit with his wife and four children over Thanksgiving. I can safely say there will not be any candy left by the time they leave.
• We need to eat more fruit and vegetables. This is not to say we do not eat fruit and vegetables. We both have a piece of fruit with breakfast and another as a snack during the day.  We also have a vegetable with dinner every night. But some how we have gotten out of the habit of eating a salad as a first course every night. I have to fix that. 
• I need to lose 20 lb. - see the two items above. Decrease candy + increase salad = weight loss.
• New ailments and on going old ailments make me feel crappy and in pain more and more. I need a lot less of that.

I have to focus on my long term health. After discovering I was allergic to my first two RA drugs, my rheumatologist said something to me and I said 'I am focused on my long term health." It has to be my goal. I go to the gym three times a week and do as much of my work out as I can - some days about half, some days more.

With my medical history, I have to be more proactive than the average person. I have to increase my fruit and veggie intake. I got my flu shot. I do get exercise. I need to be in charge of my health again. I have been lazy.

Cancer killer article

I love these articles which tell us the things to do/eat/drink/avoid to cure cancer. They usually appear on some what dubious websites, full of ads for other 'cures' which make me think of snake oil salesmen. But here's one that tell us the 'Top Ten Natural Cancer Killers'.

Its on prostate.net which is a website for 'healthy living for men'. It requests '© All Prostate.net Content is Copyrighted | Please Link to Us but Don't Copy From Us'.  This little statement is a big red flag in website credibility.

But I digress, here are the top ten natural cancer killers from their website:

1. Beans
2. Broccoli and other vegetables
3. Carrots
4. Red peppers and Capsaicin
5. Garlic
6. Mushrooms
7. Raspberries
8. Resveratrol (found in red wine and grapes)
9. Tomatoes
10. Turmeric

You can read their article on what the benefits of all these are but here is a dinner menu which you could make at home and eat once a week and get all the benefits:

Appetizer

Broccoli and carrot salad - shred or finely chop - add some finely chopped red onion, and fresh parsley, and toss with oil and vinegar or lemon juice.

Entree

Vegetarian stew with beans, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, finely chopped hot red pepper, and onions. Saute onions and garlic. Add beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, some water or vegetable broth. Season with turmeric, Garam Masala, and Vindaloo seasoning (substitute curry powder if none available). Bring to boil and let simmer for 20 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve over brown rice or with Naan bread.

Dessert

Raspberries and grapes by themselves or over vanilla ice cream. Or puree raspberries and serve over ice cream with grapes on the side.

Beverage

Nice red wine to counteract the heat of the stew.

This is how I cook. I look at what I have and wait for an inspiration. We will not have this for dinner as we are having cheese burgers. We will have it later in the week. I may think the website is dubious and am not sure these will kill off cancer - I would want a little verification before I did believe it. But it would make a relatively easy and healthy meal. A home cooked meal always beats restaurant food.

Eating healthy

Us cancer people need to eat healthy. For some reason with a cancer diagnosis, many people feel the urge to ditch the processed food in their life and eat organic. They turn over a new leaf (no pun intended) on their eating habits. Everyone seems to find their own way to eat healthy, but now the people over at Environmental Working Group have released a list of Good Food on a Budget that makes it easier. Down load a  pdf here.

It is actually full of lots of practical advice and helps you take good intentions and turn them into a menu and grocery list. I think that's the most important part. We all have good intentions and then don't cross the bridge from idea to grocery list very well. But now we have help.

Well that's it for today. My brain is not inspired. Blah. My cold still rules.