Tag Archive for: healthy diet

Health Habits: Just Do Better

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Let’s finish up our look at the recent paper that concluded we’re doing poorly when it comes to our health habits (1). If you thought smoking and exercise were underwhelming, today we’ll look at diet and body fat.

When it comes to following the U.S. Department of Agriculture Dietary Guidelines, just under 38% hit that goal. I’ve talked about this a lot over the years, and this isn’t a debate over what constitutes a good diet. While we are doing somewhat better, adults do not eat enough vegetables, fruits, or beans, and we still . . .

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Death by Donut

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There are times when the topics I write about seem to align like astronomical events; it’s as if I’m compelled because of a series of apparently unrelated actions. This time, emails from two people prompted me to write about heart disease. Yes, it’s American Heart Month and I generally write about it every year. But what would get your attention? What might drive you to take action? Let’s see if the messages this week will do it.

Thanks to S.B., a longtime reader, for sending me a link to a story about a man who . . .

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Do You Have Orthorexia Nervosa?

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Based on the prior memos, the question has to be: Is obsession with healthy foods really such a bad thing, worthy of an actual medical term? After all, it’s really healthy eating, isn’t it?

I can’t argue with that. However, any time people transition from freedom of choice to being compelled to do something that seems beyond their control, that’s a problem. Maybe not the worst problem, but a problem nevertheless.

I’ve observed first-hand anorexia nervosa when I was a college professor; college students seem to be prone to it, especially the female students . . .

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Extreme Food Choices

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People have always fixated on the perfect diet. From the food combiners of the early 20th Century to the current focus on the Paleolithic diet, there’s always someone touting the best and healthiest way to eat. A lecturer from Australia, Rebecca Charlotte Reynolds, recently wrote an article on food fixations and raised the question of whether the food obsessions might fall into the category of psychological disorders such as anorexia nervosa (1).

She cites three current ways of eating that can take over someone’s life in an unhealthy way: raw foods, clean foods, and the Paleolithic diet. I . . .

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Disordered Eating?

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You may have noticed that when it comes to weight loss, I’ve expanded my recommendations. It used to be eat less and move more; I’ve now added “eat better” between those two recommendations. That can mean a lot of things, but the simplest explanation is to eat more vegetables and fewer refined carbohydrates. But eating better can mean a whole lot more: grass-fed beef, free-range chickens, organic foods, and non-GMO foods.

Grocery stores are being developed to cater to this market. Whole Foods Market has decided to introduce a smaller scale store that offers organic . . .

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School Lunch Study Results

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Today we finish our look at a recent study designed to see if kids will eat more vegetables and fruits in school lunches (1). Over the seven-month study, there were four scenarios:

  • Schools with chef-assisted meals
  • Smart café approaches
  • Chef-assisted meals with smart café
  • Control schools that did not change their approach to school lunches

If you want to guess the results just based on logic, you would have been correct that the chef-assisted meals, with and without the smart café approach worked best. The schools . . .

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Keeping Track of Life’s Simple 7

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To complete American Heart Month, here’s an easy way to track your heart health called Life’s Simple 7 (LS7), developed by the American Heart Association. LS7 has been around since 2010 but it escaped my attention until recently. For those of you who like to track your progress to see how you’re doing, this is a great tool; you may remember I mentioned it last month, but I think you need the details to really understand how LS7 can work for you.

There are seven different categories of variables to track, hence the name Life’s Simple . . .

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How to Reverse Heart Disease

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In this final message of the week on reversing heart disease, I’m going to tell you why I think the program was successful, a couple of problems that I have with it, and the bottom line.
 
The Training
The key to this program in my opinion was education. The program began with a five-hour seminar with limited participation: no more than 12 participants. Here’s what they did in the training:

  • Explained the relationship between diet and heart disease in other cultures throughout the world.
  • Showed the damage to arteries in very young . . .

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What to Eat to Reverse Heart Disease

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We’re going to continue our look at the recently published research on the way to reverse CAD. Remember, 89% of the people recruited for this study were still following the diet more than three years later. Let’s take a look at what they ate and what they didn’t eat.

The paper describes the core diet as consisting of the following: whole grains, legumes, lentils, other vegetables, and fruit. Of course, this is a completely vegan diet. The researchers assured the subjects that they would reach their protein intake every day.

The researchers prohibited many foods as well . . .

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Reader’s Edition: How to Treat Obesity

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Thank you again for your responses to my question about obesity—you all did a great job. Some answers were short, and some went into a lot of detail. Just like last week, I’ve excerpted some of your answers. Enjoy reading what others have done and are doing, because if you have weight you’d like to abandon, you’ll find some tips in here to help you out.

A New Lifestyle
“It’s a lifestyle decision to make. Eat less by using a salad plate rather than a dinner plate—no seconds. Eat heart-healthy foods . . .

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