Tag: fat

Why We Overeat: The Toxic Food Environment & Obesity

Join the Conversation. What is your biggest Ahah! from this video, “Why We Overeat: The Toxic Food Environment and Obesity”? Talk to us now.
Do you or your loved ones overeat? Have you or your family members been gaining unwanted excess weight? Are you concerned about our obesity crisis?
To gain insights into why two-thirds of people are getting fatter and fatter and sicker and sicker, I urge you to watch a video of this fascinating panel discussion, “Why We Overeat: The Toxic Food Environment & Obesity,” thanks to the Harvard School of Public Health and the Huffington Post.
I’m so excited that I came across this video while doing research for my next book, Tame Your Crazy Cravings™.
This program presented an illustrious panel, which included:
Walter Willett, Chair, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, and Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition
David Kessler, Former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Francisco; and Author, The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite
Dariush Mozaffarian, Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and
Michael Rich, Director, Center on Media and Child Health, Boston Children’s Hospital
The modferator of “Why We Overeat” was moderated brilliantly by Meredith Melnick, Editorial Director for HuffPost Healthy Living.
This program has many fascinating points, and I urge you to watch through it for the entire time.
In particular, I urge you to pay attentiont to these fascinating comments from Dr. Mozaffarian:
“Now sugar, I agree that sugar is a problem, but sugar is no greater a problem and then totally unsweetened refined grains. And the worry I have about just focusing on sugar, it gives the refined grains, it gets them off the hook.
“So white bread, all refined cereals that have no added sugar at all, they say zero sugar on the panel, those are just as bad. And when we’ve looked at populations of hundreds of thousands of people, the weight gain associated with Skittles is exactly the same weight gain that is associated with Corn Flakes or white bread or a bagel. So to think that a bagel, that has no sugar, is different than candy is really misleading. …”
Also, I invite you to keep watching to check out the second video (at 59:00) from the HBO film, Weight of the Nation, .where you can discover which beverages contain the most sugar content, thanks to The WATCH Nutrition Clinic.
I’d love to hear what you think about this video.
Join the Conversation. What is your biggest Ahah! from this video, “Why We Overeat The Toxic Food Environment & Obesity”? Talk to us now.

Get Ready to Calm Your Crazy Cravings with Me

Join the Crazy Cravings Conversation™. What foods do you most crave and when? Post your comment now.
Cravings-can-stock-photo_csp5445145
Do you find that whenever stress strikes, deadline hits, your kids misbehave or grief wallops you, you’re seized by absolutely urgent, overpowering Crazy Cravings™ for easily accessible, fiber-stripped carbohydrates or other sugary, salty, fatty foods?
Then, the next thing you know, fueled by your frantic cravings, you hunt out your favorite trigger foods, which, of course, are quite easy to find.
After all, unless we live in the boonies or the outbacks, we’re in the midst of a junk-food jungle, which is full of convenience stores, bakeries, and carts that sell a plethora of tempting donuts, candies, cookies, crackers, chips, and junk foods.
What’s a wanna-be healthy eater to do?
And what can you do if you want to lose weight and your cravings keep derailing you?
Well, you need to learn to Calm Your Crazy Cravings™, as I put it.
Lately, I’ve been wracking my brain and exhaustively researchng how to help you do just that.
In fact, that’s why, as you may have noticed. I haven’t been posting as much lately on this Sugar Shock Blog or on my Huffington Post or Heal Your Life blogs.
You see, I’ve been deep into writing and researching my third book, Calm Your Crazy Cravings (that’s the wokring title).
My next book will help you finally let go of your urgent urges for unhealthy sugary, salty, fatty junk foods, or what I call nonfoods or unreal foods.
My next book, which I’ve been working on intensely for two years, while healing after the death of my mother, is the the follow up to my books, Sugar Shock and Beyond Sugar Shock.
Although — as I mentioned in My Carb Confession here and then later here, when I thanked Sean Croxton for inspring me to come clean — the initial inspiration for this book grew out of my own challenging, traumatic experiences and Crazy Cravings, my next book can help millions, I believe, to rise about those incessant desires for unreal foods, which can lead you to disease and even an early death.
Anyhow, I ask you to please be patient with me a while longer, because I’m sooooooo close to finishing my book, Calm Your Crazy Cravings, and then I’ll be posting lots of great tips for you.
For now, I invite you to get excited! At last, you’ll get help to rise above your Crazy Cravings.
Alex-JamiesonIn the meantime, I encourage you to get valuable perspective, awesome insights and wonderful help to understand and manage your cravings from my astute colleague, Alex Jamieson.
Alex offers a different, wortehile, brilliant perspective on the subject of cravings. (Yes, our books will complement each other well.)
The empowering, personable Alex Jamieson — who I had the pleasure of meeting years ago while living in New York City and who I saw recently at an awesome event for health experts presented by cutting-edge health guru JJ Virgin — is now gearing up for the publication of her next book, Women, Food and Desire, which comes out in January.
In fact, you may have been one of millions, who had the pleasure of seeing her on such shows as “Oprah” or “The National Health Test with Bryant Gumbel” or in the award-winning documentary, Super Size Me.
You also can hear her inspring TedX talk here.
In fact, I’m honored to be able to present Alex as one of more than 20 experts, who will participate in my upcoming Sugar World Summit. Stay tuned for details.
In the meantime, talk to us.
Join the Crazy Cravings Conversation™. What foods do you most crave and when? Post your comment now.
Photo Credit: Please note that since I’m on book deadline, I haven’t resarched if it’s okay to use this artwork above. If not, please let me know and I’ll take it down. In the meantime, I want to profusely thank Clipart Vector for this awesome cartoon. Check them out.

Do you Multi-Task While Eating? It Makes Your Food Taste Bland

Do you multi-task at meal time?
If you eat while on the computer, watching TV or doing other things, this means there’s a good chance that you’re over-indulging, too. (So found a variety of studies, which link distraction with mindless bingeing. A review of 24 studies drew that conclusion in the April 2013 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.)
Now, more research published in Psychological Science reveals that doing mentally taxing tasks while you eat will make your food taste bland, too.
In other words, when you juggle too many things at mealtime, you just won’t enjoy or appreciate your food as much.
What’s more, scientists at the Institute for Psychological Research at Leiden University in The Netherlands discovered that when participants ate sour, sweet and salty substances while doing various tasks, they consumed more food and preferred stronger tastes.
In addition doing other things while eating makes your food tastes bland. Indeed, researchers found that an “increased task load reduces people’s taste perception by limiting attentional capacity to assess taste intensity and that people adjust their consumption accordingly.”
In short, the researchers believe that cognitive load may compete with sensory input for our attention.
But let’s focus on the good news, as pointed out by Scientific American’s Tori Rodriguez. Other studies have found you eat less when you pay mindful attention to your food and fully focus on the taste, armona and texture.
The important takeaway, as I see it, is that if you want to peel off the pounds, cut out multi-tasking at meal time.
Besides, as this new study reveals, you’ll enjoy your more, too.
So join me: Mindfully savor each morsel or swallow at each meal or snack.
Multi-Tasking at Meal Time: Why It
Special thanks to visual.ly for the above infographic.
Join the Conversation. Do you multi-task while eating? Do you end up eating more? Tell us your experiences.
Then join us in ending multi-tasking while eating.

FDA to Include Added Sugars on Nutrition Labels

Added sugars will be singled out for the first tiarmful sweeteners.
me, according to proposed label changes from the United States Food and Drug Administration.
This is very good news for those of us, who’ve been warning people about sugar’s dangers and who’ve been trying to help people reduce their consumption of potentially hWhat you’ll see are two lines of information for the total amount of sugar contained.
One line will say, “Sugars,” and another line will state “Added Sugars,” according to the FDA.
By offering information about “Added Sugars,” this will help consumers to cut back on their sugar consumption. which the U.S. government now recommends.
It’s reassuring that the FDA is now making efforts to educate consumers about of how much sugar occurs naturally in a product, and how much has been added.
Other changes you’ll see will include:
Updated serving sizes, which will make it clearer for products that are consumed in one sitting. (You’ll find dual column labels that indicate both “per serving” and “per package” calorie and nutrition information for larger packages that could be consumed in one sitting or multiple sittings.)
Calorie information will be provided in a bigger font and bolder. Serving sizes would be bold, too. (The proposed label “would drive attention to calories and serving sizes,” Michael R. Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, said in a statement.
The new labels would take out Calories from Fat. (This decision was to show type of fat rather than amount so that consumers can choose products lower in saturated and trans fats.)
Changes Won’t Happen For 2 Years
Unfortunately, consumers won’t see changes right away. Food companies will have two years to comply with the new requirements, according to the FDA.
Even though this will take some time, the FDA’s plans are exciting, because they’re designed to reflect the latest scientific information, including the link between diet and chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease.
Learn about other FDA food label changes here.
Nutrition-label-fda-140227b-02Special thanks to Karl Tate, who created the above infographic for LiveScience.

Snacks at the Office Can Derail You

Check out this really timely, important op piece, “The High Cost of Free Office Snacks,” by New York Times contributor Ezekiel J. Emanuel.
For years — basically, since 1998 when I quit sugar — I’ve been irked by this phenomenon of offering sugary “treats” galore at company offices and meetings.
What I’ve found discouraging is that sweet “treats” — candies, cookies, cake, and soda — also are often offered at conferences intended to make you a better blogger, speaker, and author. But when you eat all that junk food, you’ll have trouble thinking straight and may not be able to remember all those good tips! And, of course, mindlessly noshing can also lead to challenges with your waistline if you don’t already have them.
Kudos again to Ezekiel J. Emanuel for getting people’s attention to an important topic.

Cherish Your Cravings

If you're like most people around the world, your cravings for chocolate, candies or chips often get the best of you — […]

Michelle Obama Gets Food Companies to Act

Thank to Michelle Obama’s crusade to combat children’s obesity, major food companies such as PepsiCo and Kraft Foods are changing their products.
She is, in fact, “defining defining her role as first lady by taking on the $600 billion food and beverage industries in a quest to end childhood obesity within a generation,” observes Kate Andersen Brower of Bloomberg Business Week, in an artticle entitled, “Michelle Obama’s ‘Spotlight’ on Obesity Enlists Kraft, PepsiCo.”
“Her lobbying of companies to make products healthier, labels easier to read and limit marketing of unhealthy foods to kids is paying off,” Brower observes.
A month after she began her campaign, “PepsiCo Inc., the world’s second-largest food and beverage company, pledged to stop selling full-sugar soft drinks in schools by 2012.” In addition, Kraft Foods Inc., the maker of Oreo cookies and Oscar Mayer lunch meats, jumped on board, announcing that it would further reduce the sodium content of its products..
Reporter Brower points out that the first lady’s efforts are part of a “movement to recast what the food industry is selling,” according to David Kessler, who was Food and Drug Administration commissioner from 1990 to 1997. “She puts the spotlight on the issue like few others can,” Kessler told Brower.
The American Beverage Association — which represents soda companies — has now joined Michelle Obama’s effort by running a national ad, which claims that the industry is committed to reducing beverage calories in schools by 88 percent.
Things started happening after a well-publicized meeting in Washington on March 16 when the first lady addressed members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents major food companies such as Kraft and PepsiCo. At that GMA meeting, Obama urged the companies to reduce sugar, fat and salt in their products and “to move faster and to go farther” to make them healthier.
The first lady has “accelerated our focus,” Kraft’s president of health and wellness, Rhonda Jordan, told the Bloomberg Business Week reporter Brower, who then quotes Patrick Basham, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, a Washington-based research group that promotes libertarian policies.
Basham believes that the first lady’s anti-obesity efforts are “in sync with public skepticism about `the motives of big business’ in the wake of the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression.” He also believes that the recent moves by the companies may be an effort to prevent government crackdown.
“The food industry is terrified of being either legislated out of business or so regulated they won’t be able to do what they want,” Basham told Brower.
What’s intriguing is that Michelle Obama became concerned about child nutrition for personal reasons.
She told audiences at a National PTA Conference in Arlington, Virginia, on March 10, that she got a “wakeup call” when her pediatrician voiced concern about her family’s eating habits.
While I applaud the first lady’s efforts, as always, no matter what changes the large food companies institute, I encourage people to reduce or even eliminate their consumption of processed foods.
Vegetables and fruits that come courtesy of Mother Nature are best for our bodies. Plus, they taste better — something you’ll discover after you cut back on processed carbs.
We just don’t need to consume large quantities of packaged foods that usually have

Eat All the Pancakes You Want & Leave Happy, Ad Says. Huh? Wrong!

Frankly, I don’t get it. Here we are in the midst of a horrific nationwide obesity epidemic, and a certain national chain is now enticing people and tempting them via a TV ad to eat can eat all the pancakes they want and leave happy!
You’ve got to be kidding!
Eating as many pancakes as your heart desires will not make you happy!
Isn’t it more accurate to say: “Eat all the pancakes you want, especially ones smothered in butter and syrup, and leave bloated, feeling gross and angry at yourself for pigging out!”
After you eat a pile of pancakes, you’ll probably say, “Ugh! I can’t believe I ate all those pancakes! I’m so unhappy!”