Enjoying a vacation of eating

So I recently had the privilege of visiting Italy and France. Most of my time was spent in Italy in Rome and the Amalfi Coast. I wanted to prepare myself for the change in lifestyle I would experience while I was there. So I stepped up my exercise routine, got a better handle on my eating habits (journaling, more water, and eating less not different). I managed to lose some inches going into the trip. Also, my fitness level helped my adjustment to the new time zone.

While I started with a strong resolve to keep control of my eating habits (I continued food journaling which I thought would be fun to do as a memoir to the trip), I found a new perspective on food. Actually not an altogether new one, but one that I haven't allowed myself in some time. After being inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert's book Eat, Pray, Love I realized I had the opportunity to enjoy the best food Italy has to offer. One of life's great pleasures is to sample the creations of chefs in far off lands and I decided I was deserving.

I now realize that this permission to enjoy gelato, pizza, lemon cream puffs, olive oil, pasta, almond croissants, wine, and crusty European bread (which I prefer over any other starch) was therapeutic for me. As someone who has struggled with eating disorder tendencies, I was amazed at my calm enjoyment of foods I don't (and won't) otherwise consume. I had gelato for breakfast (with fruit and crepes) and felt such gratitude and appreciation that I surprised myself. Where was the anxiety? Where was the fear and anger? There was no fretting about my arteries, my waistline, my cancer risk, my lack of self control or my ability to be loved. And I wasn't even exercising (besides walking across the street for cream puffs and cappuccino post-meal or huffing up the hill to the best pizzeria in Naples or maybe the entire world).

I had made peace with my body every time I gazed at a menu or a selection of 20 different gelato flavors. And when my traveling partner tried to take my last piece of the most amazing pizza of my life, I was at peace with adamantly telling him "no way" (he had already had his fair share, so I was doing him a favor). I was on vacation and half-way around the world from home. My body and health would recover. I knew. This wouldn't become my lifestyle. These ten days wouldn't cut my life short. And if my life were to end and my plane were to go down half way over the Atlantic. What regret would I have, in those precious minutes before death, for not having loosened my grip on my eating habits for the short time I was in Italy?

On a side note, there were plenty of health-improving foods to be had in Italy too. I had some of the most delicious salads, mushrooms, berries, tomatoes, artichokes, and bean stews. In Paris, there were crisp haricot verts (french green beans) and a creamy non-dairy parsnip soup. There were whole grain breads, luscious figs, peppery arugula and rich coffee I hope to experience again.

So now I am back to my routine and eating lifestyle that has served me well. My body bears the marks of someone who ate herself through Italy. New inches on my waist, uncomfortable bowel habits, acne all over my face (huh? I didn't see that one coming), and I can foresee hormonal mood swings coming in a few weeks. For now, I will wear these like badges for someone who had a good time on vacation. I will recuperate. I will resume exercising and eating well and taking care of myself in a different way. I will detox from my sugar coma and I will be happy to give detailed descriptions of every delicious morsel I came into contact with to anyone who is happy to listen.

So what is the lesson from this story? I don't think I have a clear answer. I believe there needs to be a distinction between celebration and overall lifestyle when it comes to food. If these celebrations happen too frequently, we may pay a price in the form of diminished health. But should food celebrations not come at all, life may lose its luster or we may lose an aspect of our humanity.

I am still learning what the precise balance is for enjoying foods that are not healthful but still increasing health-improving foods is. My advice so far is, at your next opportunity for a food celebration (Thanksgiving, Christmas) ask yourself, will eating this make me happy? Then, be grateful, be calm, and be hungry. The next day, continue your resolve to give your body the nutrients and exercise it needs.

PS. Next vacation I will make more of an effort to exercise.

My experiment in food journaling

Keeping track of daily food intake with a food diary or journal has been found to be effective for many people to help them maintain a healthy weight. Food journaling is also helpful for those with emotional food issues as it provides a place to document those feelings and help discern them from true hunger. Other health activities can be tracked in a food journal like exercise habits, blood pressure, meditation time, or any other health goals.

I recommend to clients to keep track of their meals by jotting down what they eat and drink everyday. This habit helps people in a number of ways like:

1. Knowing that you will be recording what you are currently eating puts the brakes on how much you will eat as you are no longer engaged in "mindless eating." The act of writing it down activates parts of your brain that can go idle and lead to overconsumption.

2. Recalling what you have previously eaten in a day also leads one to exert greater control over the current meal. Thinking about those 2 large pancakes loaded with syrup from breakfast can help steer away from a higher calorie lunch option. Again, this helps to engage your thinking with your eating habits and prevent mindless eating.

3. Laziness can pay off. If you have written down all of the normal number of meals you normally eat and are tempted to eat more, not feeling up to more writing is another detraction from eating more.

4. An accurate and helpful food diary is one that contains measures of food. There is a big difference between 1 cup of chips versus 1 8-cup bag of chips so merely recording "chips" does not give enough information. After many days of measuring and recording, one gets better at estimating and eyeballing food portions so after while there is no longer a need for measuring cups, spoons, and scales.

I have had many food journals over the years but none in the recent past. So I needed a fresher experience to recall. I have been recording my food intake now for the past 2 weeks. It has been an interesting experiment for me. I have also added in some other goals to keep track of like water consumption, exercise time, and belly fat measurements.

After 2 weeks I can say it has been a useful exercise and one that I would do well to continue. My water consumption has gone up. I already eat a large quantity of raw fruits and vegetables and soups which provide a lot of water. But before I might go an entire day without drinking anything other than a cup of coffee in the morning. I've noticed that being better hydrated makes for more energy throughout the day.

I am also more conscious of the amounts of food I am consuming. While I haven't been consciously reducing the amount of food I normally eat or the number of meals, I have lost body fat. Therefore, this new consciousness has resulted in eating less calories. In two weeks my waist measurement has gone down 3/4 of inch and belly button measurement down 1 inch. All in all, good changes.

There is the downside of having to take the time to record your food (which is best done soon after eating rather than waiting to do it all at the end of the day). In my opinion, more conscious eating and a healthy body outweigh this inconvenience. And you could learn things about yourself in the process.

Veggies in your face

A person's exposure to various foods from infancy on will have an influence on the choice and preference of foods. This exposure can vary from the foods provided by our parents to the snack at daycare, the pictures of foods we see on television and other media, the smell of the fry grease from fast food restaurants as we drive down the road and the offerings in the break room at the office. Studies suggest that one's desire to consume foods results from visual exposure to those foods. So for example, a person will consume more food and more calories at a buffet where all the foods are visible than from a restaurant with a menu. Another study shows that a person will eat a certain amount of candy when it is sitting in a jar on their desk, less of it if it is in their desk drawer, and even less if it is across the room in a drawer.

In the interest of consuming more raw vegetables, perhaps we need to increase our visual exposure to them. What is the first thing you see when you open the door of your refrigerator? Do you have fresh fruit sitting on your counter top or packaged processed food? Is the bag of chips or container of nuts in easy visual distance along your walkway through the kitchen? What would happen if fresh produce replaced these higher calorie (and often lower nutrient) foods? You would eat more of them!

Of course, some produce holds up better at room temperature than others. Fruit is better on the counter than vegetables. While consuming more fruit is a good thing, more servings of vegetables is an even better goal. Pictured is the door to my fridgerator. One of the first things you see is the cauliflower, sugar snap peas, red pepper, baby carrots, and celery on the door. These will need to be eaten in a few days. The fresher the better. But even older produce is better compared with the bag of chips or the box of cookies.

Here are other options to include in a "Produce Door Bin:"
1. Grape tomatoes
2. Baby sweet peppers
3. String beans
4. Jicama sticks
5. Sliced fennel
6. Cucumber
7. Broccoli
8. Baby bok choy


So you can try the experiment for yourself. Put some pre-cut, washed vegetables in a highly visible spot on your fridge door and see what happens. See if you can resist them.

Saturated fat goes straight to your brain....

....then to your waistline.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - It's official. That tub of ice-cream really can control your brain and say "eat me."

A U.S. study by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas has found that fat from certain foods such ice-cream and burgers heads to the brain.

Once there, the fat molecules trigger the brain to send messages to the body's cells, warning them to ignore the appetite-suppressing signals from leptin and insulin, hormones involved in weight regulation -- for up to three days.

"Normally, our body is primed to say when we've had enough, but that doesn't always happen when we're eating something good," said researcher Deborah Clegg in a statement.

"What we've shown in this study is that someone's entire brain chemistry can change in a very short period of time. Our findings suggest that when you eat something high in fat, your brain gets "hit" with the fatty acids, and you become resistant to insulin and leptin.

"Since you're not being told by the brain to stop eating, you overeat."

The researchers also found that one particular type of fat -- palmitic acid which is found in beef, butter, cheese and milk, -- is particularly effective at instigating this mechanism.

The study was performed on rats and mice but the scientists say their results, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, reinforced common dietary recommendations to limit saturated fat intake as "it causes you to eat more."

The study was conducted by exposing rats and mice to fat in different ways -- by injecting various types of fat directly into the brain, infusing fat through the carotid artery or feeding the animals through a stomach tube three times a day.

The animals received the same amount of calories and fat and only the type of fat differed. The types included palmitic acid, monounsaturated fatty acid and unsaturated oleic acid which is found in olive and grapeseed oils.

"The action was very specific to palmitic acid, which is very high in foods that are rich in saturated-fat," said Clegg.

(Writing by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Ideal Health Custom Multivitamin: Based on Your Body's Needs

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Custom Multivitamin Multivitamin Based on Your Body's Needs Your body is unique. The bio-nutrients it needs for optimal functional health may be different from those that someone else needs. That's why ordinary multivitamins don't cut it. Multivitamins from the drugstore, and expensive supplements from nutrition and health food stores alike, can leave you with too much of some nutrients, too little of others, or none at all of other particular nutrients your body needs. The simple truth is that "one-size-fits-all" multivitamin cannot provide you with optimal nutrition because they are created for a hypothetical "average" person. No such person exists. On top of that, many ingredients in drug store brand multivitamins are in hard-to-absorb forms, or their ingredients are isolated from their synergistic nutrient partners—facts which can greatly reduce their effectiveness. Ideal Health's unique Custom Essentials® are a customized formula of the highest quality nutrientschosen for your body's unique needs based on the results of a sophisticated test (the PrivaTest®) that looks at metabolic markers in your urine. BACK TO TOP OF PAGE

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND Watch Our Videos WHY CUSTOM ESSENTIALS® PERSONAL TESTIMONIALS ABOUT THE PRIVATEST® ABOUT OUR LABORATORY Custom Multivitamin OVERVIEW PRIVATEST CUSTOM ESSENTIALS PRIVATEST RETEST QUALITY FAQS

Fresh home cooking and health

I often check out other people's carts for their food choices. This gives me a good idea of what the rest of the world is looking to cook. I recently witnessed a family shopping at the grocery store. This family had a cart loaded with chicken legs, chicken breading supplies, oil, many packages of bacon, some kind of red meat and one small bag of collard greens. Now, with the exception of the small bag of collard greens, everything was in a very large bulk size. Granted, I am in the south and these are southern food choices. But this family is filling their bodies with the lowest nutrient food options the store had to offer. I wasn't merely feeling haughty about this fact. I felt incredible sadness. There was an overweight toddler sitting in the front of the cart. This child, without any input of his own, was already on a path to obesity, disease and lowered quality of life. Simply because of the food choices of his parents.

What these parents were doing right however, was making efforts to cook their meals at home. I see too many people who rely on the food industry to cook their meals for them. So this is my post to implore you to do some fresh cooking at home!

Every time you rely on the food industry or restaurant industry to provide your meals, you put your future health in the hands of strangers. Are you really ok with that? Would you tell a stranger to make a major health decision for you? Would you pass your kids off to a stranger to take to the doctor to make a major decision on their health? Probably not!

Learning new cooking, baking or preparation techniques are powerful tools! The family I mentioned earlier could learn some more healthful ways to get some of the taste of their old favorite dishes without compromising their health. Take a look at books with cooking how to instructions. Check out some new videos. We should never stop learning. Considering how many meals we will put into our bodies over our lifetimes, improving on our food preparation skills is a noble venture. C'mon people, show your loved ones you care about them. Cooking a fresh meal that is also nourishing and disease fighting is one of the best things you can do for your family.

A great diet pill for weight

I have invented a great pill for weight loss. These pills will cause your body's cells to get vamped into high gear. Your cells will experience a flood of special components that will cause them to maximize their efficiency. Increasing those biochemicals, otherwise known as hormones, that speed up fat burning power.

Cells are little factories. Factories need supplies to operate. Factories also generate garbage after the finished product is made. Cells only work best when there is little garbage in the way and enough of the right supplies. This pill will remove those waste byproducts that are a result of the daily activities occurring in cells every second of everyday. In fact, not only will these pills cause fat burning power to be maximized, they will also strengthen the power of the cells. This pill will prevent the damage to the core of the cell so that the cell will be able to regenerate itself without becoming deformed in the process. It will be able to recreate itself without turning into a cancerous cell. It will also be able to fend off the damage that can result in heart attacks and strokes.

This amazing little weight pill will only work on a few conditions. You see, this is a lifestyle enabling weight pill. These are the conditions:

1. It must be taken first thing in the morning.
2. Repeated checking in to this blog and other informative nutrition information sites/books is needed.
3. It should be taken again at the opportunities in the day you have to put on some pumping music and move your body.
4. One will want to make a grocery list based on healthful, nutrient packed recipes.
5. One will be motivated to take this grocery list to the store and have a well-stocked kitchen.
6. This pill will also motivate one to get home and make some delicious dishes.

After taking these pills one will be able to make effective decisions the entire rest of the day. Each opportunity to eat will be met with powerful knowledge about the best choice to make for a strong, lean and healthy body. The person can expect to choose a fresh spring greens salad over a side of greasy, belly-fat adding french fries. A low-fat black bean burger will be an easy choice over the saturated-fat laden beef burger. This diet pill will flood the user's brain with a plethora of knowledge as it relates to each food choice. The obvious choice of the foods overflowing with body strengthening nutrients will leap out at you.

For example you will be able to see the difference in carotenoids (powerful nutrients) between a mexican casserole with spinach, corn, pinto beans, avocado, salsa and cilantro versus a supreme pizza with sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, peppers, onions, cheese, sauce, and a thin crust:

Mexican casserole
α-carotene 133
ß-carotene 9189
ß-cryptoxanthin 440
lutein + zeaxanthin 7927

Pizza
α-carotene 0
ß-carotene 1020
ß-cryptoxanthin 0
lutein + zeaxanthin 120


Obviously the Mexican casserole emerges as the winner! With this pill, you will know that it is a better choice. After about two weeks, cravings will diminish as the new lifestyle becomes more ingrained and tastes become adapted to preferring more healthful foods. Of course, you should disregard the mint-shape and mint-flavor of my weight pill.

Health and water: Why fresh fruit and vegetables are important

If you have ever spent an entire day outside in the heat of the summer or even just a pleasant spring day, you have likely experienced waning energy from a lack of water. Our body's cells are dependent on fluid to function. Water is very important to health and keeping everything functioning as it should.

Most people believe that when it comes to water, less is more. While switching from a sugary drink to water is always a good thing for health, guzzling endless glasses of water throughout the day is not the best way to keep hydrated.

The human thirst drive is believed to be slightly behind a person's need for water. Staying on top of hydration is a good strategy to avoid the energy drain and other symptoms that can accompany a need for more fluids.

The best strategy for this is to make use of the opportunities for eating foods to also ingest more water. By eating foods that are not only rich in nutrients (vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals), but also good sources of water, staying hydrated becomes more convenient.

Of course, by avoiding those things that leach fluids from cells one can make a significant impact on how much additional water is needed. Alcohol, sugar, caffeine, high sodium content foods and dry foods (baked or crispy) can leach water from cells requiring a replenished source. In contrast, raw fruits and vegetables, soups and other watery foods add liquids.

Given our already high daily intake needs for fruits and vegetables, eating salads, raw vegetable crudités, and fresh fruits is an excellent opportunity to increase not only the water needed in our bodies, but also the numerable nutrients necessary for for health. In fact, if someone were consuming recommended servings for fruits and vegetables by having a few pieces of fresh fruit at breakfast, a large salad for lunch with more fresh fruit as a dessert, another salad and fresh fruit at dinner, consuming additional water would be obsolete. Or, if you were also drinking several glasses of water with this menu, you might never leave the bathroom!

Raw blueberry avocado pie

 

This pie comes together in 5 minutes although it holds together better if it can spend some time in the freezer before serving. My daughter will only do blueberries blended (unless she is standing next to a blueberry bush). So creamy blended blueberry shakes and desserts are my best bet. Parents, take note, kids love this version of blueberries!

Blueberries have numerable health benefits from preventing age-related mental decline to preventing cancer. Blueberries should be an everyday staple food for those with heart disease (and everyone else). Flavonoids in blueberries strengthen blood vessels.

Blueberries may reverse the effects of an aging brain. If improving your memory while you eat breakfast sounds like a good idea, blueberries should be as routine every morning as coffee. Just be sure to check for a purple mustache before walking out the door!

A Trip to the Grocery Store

A trip to the DeKalb Farmers Market. What did I buy? What did I not buy?

My health story

Through high school I steadily gained more and more weight. By my senior year, I was my largest at around 160 pounds on my small 5'5" frame. I looked for larger clothes to hide in and felt awful. Before college, I tried an Atkins-style, low carbohydrate diet and lost quite a bit of weight. But my energy was very low. I could barely do any exercise without feeling very tired. As I went off the diet and started college cafeteria food, I gained all the weight back.

I struggled with depression about my weight and appearance. I experienced fatigue and asthma symptoms when I exercised, and my blood pressure and cholesterol continued to climb. I became a vegetarian at the end of college for ethical reasons. My weight didn't change as my diet still included a significant amount of animal foods mostly in the form of dairy products. At the age of 24 my weight was around 149 lbs and my blood pressure was 122/80, signifying prehypertension. I was fatigued and my seasonal allergies were unbearable. I experienced terrible discomfort during menstruation and I was frequently at the doctor for sinus medication and an inhaler for when I exercised.

After switching to a vegan diet in 1999 and starting a more regular exercise program, my weight dropped 10 pounds over the next year. I resigned myself to the belief that I would never be skinny and it was genetically impossible to be skinny given that most of the women in my family battle with their weight too. My mostly vegan diet still included lots of processed foods and my addiction to sugar was overwhelming. I felt like I could not get through the day without some kind of sugary, fatty dessert which I most enjoyed after dinner.

However, my interest in nutrition and the many questions I would get from people curious about my vegan diet led me to go to grad school to become a registered dietitian. I read many resources on nutrition outside of my course work. Given what I was learning and how recommendations for fruit and vegetable intake would go up every year, it seemed to make more sense that fruits and vegetables be at the base of the pyramid and the bulk of what people ate.

Later, I heard Dr. Furhman lecture at a conference on Chinese nutrition in Philadelphia in 2002. I bought his book Fasting and Eating for Health and enjoyed it immensely. I was especially impressed with his careful referencing of many studies in his book. I continued to toy with different weight loss diets and was continually frustrated with not knowing what exact amount of calories to consume and how much I was eating. Even with all of my nutrition knowledge I did not know how to eat for my ideal weight. I later bought Eat to Live and the message that fruit and vegetables should occupy a predominant place was dead on. I adopted the ETL diet and the very specific recommendations for emphasizing high nutrient and low calorie foods. Slowly, but surely, the weight started to come off. What was amazing to me was how much food I was eating yet how I continued to lose weight.

My journey with eating a high nutrient diet has had its ups and down. I now know now know what true hunger is, to feel very satisfied with a meal that I am able to not snack until the next meal, and, most surprising, has greatly reduced my desire for the fatty desserts and other processed foods I loved so much. I would never have thought that I would look forward to a fruit and nut “ice cream” as much as the full fat dairy variety back during my food addicted-20s. I am now at an ideal weight of 120 and a dress size 2 down from a size 12 in high school. My numbers were as follows:

	Processed food vegan	High nutrient diet
Weight	144 lbs	120 lbs
Blood pressure	120 sys/ 80 dias	100 sys/ 62 dia
Cholesterol	158 mg/dl	126 mg/dl
HDL Cholesterol	55 mg/dl	50 mg/dl
LDL Cholesterol	79 mg/dl	65 mg/dl
Cholesterol/HDL ratio	2.9:1 mg/dl	2.5:1 mg/dl
Triglycerides	120 mg/dl	56 mg/dl

I enjoy many physical activities like biking, running, and weight training and my resting heart rate stays in the low 40s. I can do all these activities without the aid of inhaled steroids and my energy level is much better. It has been such an accomplishment to feel and look better now as I get older than how I felt and looked in my early 20s. Not many people can claim to be in better shape now than when they were in high school! I am now a mom and am raising my daughter with the same high-nutrient diet in the hopes that she will never have the struggle with weight and health problems that I had. I especially enjoyed reading Dr. Furhman’s Disease Proof Your Child and continue to use it as a resource. My daughter’s growth has been steady and she sailed through infancy without ear infection that have become so common.

I have now focused my professional goals to helping others achieve their full health potential in my private nutrition practice (http://AtlantaNutrition.com). I have seen the power of a high nutrient diet in my clients. I am very grateful to Dr. Fuhrman for his practice, knowledge and hard work to disseminate all of this information to the public.