Daily Diet Blog

July 1, 2007

Snack Food Companies Starting to Regulate Themselves

Filed under: Diet and Weightloss News — EatingToLive @ 8:25 am

In the increasing awareness of obesity trend, and especially obesity in children, snack food companies and “junky food” companies such as Kraft are starting to regulate themselves in that they are making smaller portion sizes as well as low fat versions of original snack products such as Cheezits and Oreos.

Not only that, some have committed to stop using cartoon characters and the like to help make unhealthy products that may be high is sodium and fat and offer little protein or soluble fiber in their marketing materials.

Many parents complain that their children today are deluged with commercials specifically made to appeal to kids, with their favorite characters and likenesses, which entice them to eat foods that are high in fat and virtually nutritionless. Due to an increase in litigation from both parents of obese kids and obese adults themselves, against food companies, for both enticing and misleading advertising has also lit a flame under the fire of food reform for many companies, but this part of the equation is largely denied by food makers who cite public interest as their main concern in making the changes.

I have to admit, while I do feel the food industry is partly to blame for rising childhood obesity, it is also the parents job to teach their kids about healthy foods, and encourage them to pick fruits and veggies or high salt, high fat snacks that offer very little in the way of blood sugar stabilization and nutrition. Good nutrition and sound health advice does start at home, so it is the parents primary responsibility to have a health and fit child.

June 28, 2007

Recipe for Healthy Mexican Rice

Filed under: Low Cal Ideas — EatingToLive @ 7:18 am

I was really hankering for some Mexican rice the other day, but figured the real thing, with bleached white rice and smothered in cheese (least that’s the way I like it) didn’t exactly fit into my fit and lean menu as of late, so I did a little creative cooking.  Here’s what I ended up with, and I actually made a whole tasty meal out of this one side dish.

Mexican Rice, the Healthy Way :

2 cups of cooked brown rice with grain intact (long grain wild brown rice - slow cooking).  This way the rice maintains a lot of fiber and even some protein unlike white rice which is virtually nutrient free and has no fiber or protein.  I boiled the rice for a half hour along with the following ingredients :

1/2 cup your favorite salsa

Several shakes of Zatarains creole seasoning, or some other comparable creole or mexican seasoning with chili pepper and other chipotle flavored types of seasonings in it. 

Half can of diced chilis

Couple shakes of sweet basil

Instead of boiling my rice in water, I boiled it in a vegetable broth for more flavor.  You can find a good vegetable broth with less sodium if you’re concerned about sodium intake. 

Voila, mix it all together, top with some fat free sour cream and light or fat free shredded cheese or soy cheese, and you have a healthy, tasty treat with mexican flare, for not a lot of calories! 

 

June 25, 2007

Does Diet Drug Alli Have a Fatal Side Effect?

Filed under: Prescription Diet Aids — EatingToLive @ 12:45 pm

The diet drug Alli, which is causing the latest weight loss medication sensation in the news lately, is the nonprescription form of the prescription weight loss drug Xenical, which has been sold for some time under the name and has been rebirthed as a nonprescription strength drug that can help you lose weight. 

But the side effects most notoriously tied to Alli and Xenical are that you may suffer runny stools since it does not allow full absorption of fats, and also unpleasant gas and gastric pain.  Yeah, these are really unpleasant and embarrassing side effects, but are they actually harmful?  Well, one group does think so, and even goes so far as to say that Alli is linked to colon cancer, which can be a fatal disease as we all know. 

The consumer advocacy group claims that clinical trials on mice show that the diet drug had caused precancerous lesions in the colon.  They say that the FDA should have never approved the drug for over the counter use because there are really no studies that prove that over the long term this will not cause the same in humans that consume the diet drug. 

The drug actually expels excess fat consumed by the person who is taking the drug and that is the reason for the runny stool, because the excess fat has to go somewhere.  I remember the same side effect occurred with the Olestra fake fat that was on the market for a while, and I remember some pretty unpleasant side effects from that as well, it just didn’t feel natural, like you were sort of playing a dangerous game with your colon and digestive system by eating foods that are supposed to be absorbed by the body and are instead expelled through an unnatural process.  I would say a carb blocker would be a safer way to go if you’re concerned about losing weight and want to expel excess carbs from your body instead of fat. 

June 22, 2007

Diabetics Dangerous Weight Game

Filed under: Diet and Weightloss News — EatingToLive @ 3:58 pm

Diabetics rely on shots of insulin, something that their bodies do not produce on their own, to keep in line with what a normal person’s body would secrete, every day.  But a new dangerous trend is emerging where diabetics may be gambling with their lives in the name of being thin, something that all too many of us fall prey to at one time or another, but perhaps with not such grave possibilities. 

You see, one of the side effects of diabetes, and consequently when diabetics do not get enough insulin, is an uncontrollable weight loss.  Many women, especially younger women who may not understand the full cost of denying their bodies insulin, are actually skipping their insulin so that this seemingly desirable side effect becomes a reality. 

The problem with skipping insulin shots for diabetics is not only an uncontrollable weight loss, but also the fact that they can and will cause permanent damage to their kidneys and risk blindness and even death if they keep either skipping insulin or they just don’t take enough insulin to keep their kidneys healthy.  Perhaps there is a hypnotist that can help in this case? I was just thinking because of self hynotherapy for weight loss, maybe they had something that could help bulimics and diabetics with anorexia. 

Another unsavory aspect of not getting insulin for diabetics especially with Type 1 diabetes is the risk of amputation of limbs and digits because of diabetes-onset gangreen.  Heart palpitations, cramping, eye problems and a barrage of other horrid side effects result from not taking insulin for Type 1 diabetics, and it’s all in the  name of not weighing as much.  Sad….very sad. 

June 19, 2007

Apple Cider Vinegar for Weight Control

Filed under: Dietary Supplements — EatingToLive @ 10:46 am

I remember about a year or so ago, at work, my boss or someone else in my practice group read that drinking shots of apple cider vinegar, or ACV, to help encourage weight loss and digestion.  So, naturally, all the women in my group tried out this concept because my gosh, if you could help control your weight or to even actually lose weight just by doing a shot of vinegar at every meal, why not, right? 

Well it turns out that it turns some people’s stomach to do a shot of the mouth-puckering stuff, but for me I could definitely handle it because I’m used to chewing my vitamins to get the most out of them, and I have a fairly strong stomach.  I have to say that apple cider vinegar did work on me as a mild natural appetite suppressant first of all, but not enough of one to make any big dents in my many times bottomless appetite. 

So, there we were, doing shots of organic apple cider vinegar, or ACV, every day, before every meal.  Before you knew it, the place where we sat began to smell like a big vinegar factory!  Most of us were doing it with Braggs infamous ACV with “the mother”, which is the enzymes and good stuff that’s left over in the distill process of organic vinegar and is a must if you want to glean all the positive benefits of apple cider vinegar.  It looks like little spindly white pieces floating around in the vinegar, and must be shaken to get a little in every shot.

I think that my experience with ACV did help me as far as digestion and acid reflux goes, but I’m not so sure that doing the vinegar shots alone would actually result in any weight loss as some have said before.  I didn’t change my diet while doing it, and subsequently did not lose weight, so I have a feeling that those that claim they lost weight by only doing vinegar also were watching what they were eating a little more than usual.  Or maybe they really did still eat the same and lose weight, I just find it a little suspect.

I still believe that ACV has tons of health benefits, and do believe that it assists in your stomach acid’s ability to digest foods properly, so I think if you’re trying to lose weight, maybe if you’re taking some sort of natural appetite suppressant diet pill, you could add ACV to your regimen since it can help break down food easier and also may keep you more regular, enhancing your digestive process and therefore your weight loss quest. 

There are a plethora of additional health benefits of ACV that can be read about.  Some claim that it has helped their skin clear up, they don’t get sick as often, they never get upset stomachs, it helps with constipation, and even may help fight some diseases.  So that alone should make apple cider vinegar a worthy friend to all that think about taking it for its beneficial health properties. 

June 16, 2007

Acomplia Gets Rejected

Filed under: Prescription Diet Aids — EatingToLive @ 1:08 pm

The newer weight loss pill (prescription) that goes by the brand name of Acomplia but it’s drug name is Rimonabant, has been unanimously rejected for approval for use in the US by the panel the FDA uses to try to decide whether or not they want to approve a certain drug for sale and use here in the US.  Although the FDA is not required to follow the advisory panel’s advice, it usually does, and in this case since the decision was unanimous that the panel’s participants didn’t like what they heard, the FDA rejected the drug for sale in the US.

The reason for the unanimous decision was that the drug was shown to almost double the risk of suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety and sleeplessness in it’s subjects.  Since the side effects are real and possible, the drug company recommende the way around such dangers was to screen potential patients of the drug for depression and anxiety prior to prescribing it.

The advisory panel decided this was not good enough though, and the potential for this serious side effect sounded too dangerous to allow for widespread sale here in the US. 

The bigger problem was that most of the patients who reported the mental problems while on the drug had absolutely no history of depression or related mental health issues.  Since the studies were done with half placebo and half on the drug, the findings were really significant, since these patients with no history of mental illness reported the issues. 

The weight loss pill has been shown to be effective for weight loss though, but the findings suggest that much more research on the drug’s effect on the mind is needed before the FDA can conscienably approve a drug that can have a significant effect on one’s psyche. 

June 13, 2007

The Hormone Responsible for Staying Thin

Filed under: Diet and Weightloss News — EatingToLive @ 8:20 am

We’ve always known that a certain abundance of hormones, say too much estrogen, can cause us to gain weight, especially in certain areas, but is there an actual weight-regulating hormone that may be the golden ticket to permanent thin-ness?  Well, scientists are very excited that they may have found yet another answer to why certain people are thin and certain people are obese.  Well, besides what we put into our bodies and how we burn off calories (ie if we exercise or are couch potatoes). 

The magic hormone is called the FGF21 hormone, which is made by our livers.  This is quite a surprise, as no one had ever linked a hormone that was manufactured in the liver as a hormone that is responsible for our fatness or thinness.  The interesting part is that mice that had higher levels of this hormone in their body had lower levels of lipids (fats) circulating in their blood stream, and also had a harder time “plumping up”, even when put on higher calorie and higher fat diets.  Their counterparts who did not have higher levels of the FDF21 hormone circulating in their blood stream actually gained weight much more quickly. 

The outcome and finding of the study showed that higher levels of this hormone actually dictated the metabolic rate of mice, and changed their whole metabolism profile, making them into efficient (perhaps even too efficient if this hormone level was very high) calorie burning machines. 

This hormone may lead to a devlopment of some kind of “miracle cure” for obesity or another fix, but we here at Daily Diet Blog still think the way to all around health, well being and staying skinny is dieting and exercise - the good kind that is, not a reduce calorie diet of nothing but cheese puffs and ice cream! 

June 10, 2007

Eat Like the French and Stay Skinny?

Filed under: Dieting Trends — EatingToLive @ 7:05 pm

We’ve all heard before about how the French either have it in their genes, or their diets, to be one of the skinniest of all of us, but why is this?  Many theories abound, but really it’s what is most logical that gives the French the lowest heart disease and obesity rates of any of us.  And what could that be?  Well, it’s actually one of the seemingly hardest things to do and to learn.  It’s portion control. 

I find that portion control is probably the hardest thing for me to keep in mind when eating my meals, which is probably why I try to limit the foods I eat more in order to make up for the fact that I do have a fairly large appetite, and tend to eat more than even my boyfriend if I’ve sat down to a particular meal hungry out of my mind.

Another thing that is hard for some people to discipline themselves to do is to slow down when eating.  My mom happens to have this one down to a T, and also happens to be very thin because of that and an affinity for meats and veggies in her meals rather than loading up on the carbs and simple sugars and getting fuller faster because of the fact that she does eat slowly.

You see, the French eat slower and savor their meals, many times with a glass of wine, and because of this, their brains signal their bodies that they are fuller when they’ve eaten less than if they would have, say, inhaled their food all in one ten minute sitting very quickly.  If we slow down our eating, by the time our brain signals our bodies that we are full, we’ve ingested less, and so have less caloric intake.  They say that it takes our brains about twenty minutes to register fullness. 

This is why many times, you think you’re still hungry and keep eating, and then a half hour later you feel like you’re about to bust open.  You’ve overeaten because you haven’t given your body adeqate time to get the message from your brain that you’ve had enough. 

June 7, 2007

But I Thought the Europeans Were Skinnier?

Filed under: Diet and Weightloss News — EatingToLive @ 5:14 am

This article baffled me, because for some reason, I thought that Europeans were typically a skinnier version of us Americans.  But apparently the obesity trend is not only affecting the US, but is also affecting our European friends oversees, with an official declaring that most Europeans are overweight, and that the European youth is greatly contributing to the rising obesity figures across the sea due to a highly sugary and fatty diet and inactive lifestyles.

He says that of particular concern is the rise in obesity among the nation’s youth, and that the abandonment of the Mediterranean style diet, which has been widely credited as the slimming factor overseas, is largely to blame since the youth is now opting for bad fast foods and higher sugar and fat content foods.  Hmm, is this the Americanization and McDonalds-ization of overseas continents that is causing our friends and neighbors to become obese?  Is this all the work of the Americanization of cultures? 

Not only has the abandonment of the Mediterranean diet, which is high in vegetables and healthy omega 3 fats contributed to the rise in overweight kids, but also the consumption of healthy fruits and veggies has contributed, with vegetable and fruit consumption being at all time lows. 

I just wonder, what caused this huge, relatively fast shift in the EU culture to cause such a surge and obvious concern in the health ministry?  It is disquieting to say the least, and like I said, I have a feeling this has to do with  the widespread Americanization of other cultures, which is not a good thing I’m ashamed to say, when it comes to food and diet.  It’s no wonder that diet pills such as herbal phentermine have gained not only US popularity, but also overseas where people are looking for ways to cut their appetite when they really need to also fix their cravings by consuming the right foods in the first place, and no this does not include a McDonald’s shake and fries!   

June 4, 2007

Starbucks Makes Healthy Choice

Filed under: Low Cal Ideas — EatingToLive @ 11:05 am

Starbucks, my favorite maker of the white chocolate mocha, the calorie bomb that I admittedly sometimes enjoy as a guilty pleasure when I’m feeling the need for a caffeine boost, has made a low fat switch perhaps in the increasing trend for food providers and fast food restaurants to provide healthier choices for their customers, and a government that is increasingly cracking down on the foods that are offered to the general public after the obesity problem has gained international attention.

The super coffee chain has switched to two percent milk in it’s coffee latte, mocha and other creamy drinks, in an effort to help cut the fat content in their most popularly sold frothy drinks.  This doesn’t mean, however, that customers cannot specially request that their espresso drink still be made with whole milk, but I guess it does mean that it will be made with the lower fat alternative to whole milk, 2% milk by default from now on.

I actually really like 2% milk, and feel that it still provides a creamy texture, and personally feel that whole milk is actually a bit too rich sometimes, at least when I drink it by itself, so I think that 2% milk is a good option to offer that still packs a creamy taste, but just less milkfat, which is notoriously hard on the digestive system, especially to those who have a bit of lactose intolerance, like myself!

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