faulker053

Kristen knew to avoid fats—except for those in nuts (which she included in very limited amounts) and certainly those in dairy and oils. Fats are bad. Period. She loves fat free yogurts, but those she omits because of the sugar. Same with milk, which she truly used to enjoy. Now she uses fortified water aka lite almond milk. Seasonal fruits, even the organic stuff—completely stricken from her diet, you know, because of the sugar.  Whole grains—well those have those god-awful carbs so those are out too. Yup, that leaves… lean poultry and fish and non starchy vegetables. No wonder meal planning is a challenge. No wonder she struggles to not binge following a day of deprivation. No wonder her energy level is low, and her thoughts are preoccupied with food and eating. Why can’t I decide what to eat? If you're like Kristen, you get so over-focused on what you shouldn't eat that you're challenged to figure out what to eat.   Your endless food rules about nutrition, weight and hea...

Should they start weighing and measuring everything they eat? This scares me . Really it does. The US government, the FDA more specifically, has decided to encourage kids and their educators and families—i.e. everyone—to start tracking their calories, because, you know, doesn’t that solve the ‘obesity epidemic’? Well, no, it doesn’t—and it may cause more harm than good. Their stated goal is to get kids and families to start reading labels and think more about what and how much they eat. Innocent enough, right? Well I don’t think so. Maybe I’m biased because I see far too many kids and adults, stuck in their heads with too much information; they spend time calorie counting, and limit their choices to single portions of foods because that’s what the label says is the ‘right’ amount. They allow the label to define their personal need, as if serving size was one-size-fits-all, when really it’s designed to provide information about nutritional value per serving, based on “usual” por...

It was like waking up in Sleeper, the Woody Allen movie, when the main character, asleep for umpteen years, wakes to find that cigarette smoking is good for your health. That’s how I felt some weeks ago after reading the half page article in the NY Times entitled “Study Questions Fat and Heart Disease Link”, based on the r ecent study by Dr. Chowdhury et al which reviewed more than 70 scientific studies and appears to turn our cholesterol lowering guidelines on its head. No one is concluding you should be eating more of this. You, my readers, may have little concern about your heart disease risk. Yet I urge you to keep reading—because unless this news splash is explained, you’ll be left feeling like health professionals just can’t get it right. I mean, one day they say saturated fats are bad, and next day they tell you they don’t impact your risk. Carbs are good, and then they’re bad. Hormone replacement therapy is recommended, and then it’s dangerous. Confronted with so much conflic...

There’s a halo hanging around all things high protein, these days. In fact, even foods not high in protein are labeled as if they are—simply to convince you to buy them! Case in point: which is lowest in protein— Starbuck’s Protein Bistro Box, Chicken and Hummus Bistro Box or their Turkey and Swiss on wheat bread?  The winner is? Their Protein Bistro Box! Yes, in spite of containing egg, cheddar cheese and peanut butter—a rather disgusting combination, I might add—it comes out the lowest at 13 grams, compared to its competitors at 16 grams and 34 grams of protein, respectively.  If you are selecting the Protein Bistro because you think all that protein (which doesn’t exist anyway) is going to help with weight management, let me break the news—it’s among their higher calorie meals! And for the record, it's the calories that make the difference. Personally, I’d rather have the lower cal sandwich and add on a mini whoopee pie or cupcake. Maybe that’s just me. I could have kept...

My lunch on a hike in Switzerland Organic, whole grain, natural, unprocessed. These words carry visions of ideal diets, of pure and clean eating, of good health.  US News and World Report’s recent article    summarized the healthiest diets, from The DASH diet at the top of the list to The Paleo near the bottom. A panel of experts reviewed each plan for safety and nutritional value—then ranked the best down to the worst plans for health and weight control. Here’s a brief summary of a few of their findings—with my interpretation added. You didn’t think I’d let this pass without putting in my two cents, did you? DASH diet Never heard of it? Not surprising, unless you, like me, have high blood pressure. DASH, an acronym for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension is shown to be as effective against hypertension as medication, when compared side by side in studies. Its key elements are large quantities of fruits and vegetables, and inclusion of three low fat dairy products dai...