Today’s Re-Powering Information. The obesity rankings were just posted this week. They statistics are NOT improving. Obesity did NOT decrease in a single state – including Texas. Eight of the 10 states with the highest percentage of obese adults are in the South. Lori you will be happy to hear that Colorado has the lowest percentage of obesity. I believe that part of the high obesity in the south has to do with the fast food chains. I was in shock when we moved here and saw so many fast food options. My town in NJ had a burger king (almost 50 years old) and a Duncan donuts. That was it! 2 choices. Flower Mound has over 50 options for fast food.
I am thankful that you have not chosen to be part of the statics!
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
State by state obesity rankings are out
Washington, D.C. - Adult obesity rates increased in 23 states and did not decrease in a single state in the past year, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009, a report released today by the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). In addition, the percentage of obese or overweight children is at or above 30 percent in 30 states.
"Our health care costs have grown along with our waist lines," said Jeff Levi, Ph.D., executive director of TFAH. "The obesity epidemic is a big contributor to the skyrocketing health care costs in the United States. How are we going to compete with the rest of the world if our economy and workforce are weighed down by bad health?"
Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5 percent, making it the fifth year in a row that the state topped the list. Four states now have rates above 30 percent, including Mississippi, Alabama (31.2 percent), West Virginia (31.1 percent) and Tennessee (30.2 percent). Eight of the 10 states with the highest percentage of obese adults are in the South. Colorado continued to have the lowest percentage of obese adults at 18.9 percent.
Adult obesity rates now exceed 25 percent in 31 states and exceed 20 percent in 49 states and Washington, D.C. Two-thirds of American adults are either obese or overweight. In 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. In 1980, the national average for adult obesity was 15 percent. Sixteen states experienced an increase for the second year in a row, and 11 states experienced an increase for the third straight year.
Mississippi also had the highest rate of obese and overweight children (ages 10 to 17) at 44.4 percent. Minnesota and Utah had the lowest rate at 23.1 percent. Eight of the 10 states with the highest rates of obese and overweight children are in the South. Childhood obesity rates have more than tripled since 1980.
"Reversing the childhood obesity epidemic is a critical ingredient for delivering a healthier population and making health reform work," said Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D., M.B.A., RWJF president and CEO. "If we can prevent the current generation of young people from developing the serious and costly chronic conditions related to obesity, we can not only improve health and quality of life, but we can also save billions of dollars and make our health care systems more efficient and sustainable."
The F as in Fat report contains rankings of state obesity rates and a review of federal and state government policies aimed at reducing or preventing obesity. Some additional key findings from F as in Fat 2009 include:
* The current economic crisis could exacerbate the obesity epidemic. Food prices, particularly for more nutritious foods, are expected to rise, making it more difficult for families to eat healthy foods. At the same time, safety-net programs and services are becoming increasingly overextended as the numbers of unemployed, uninsured and underinsured continue to grow. In addition, due to the strain of the recession, rates of depression, anxiety and stress, which are linked to obesity for many individuals, also are increasing.
* Nineteen states now have nutritional standards for school lunches, breakfasts and snacks that are stricter than current USDA requirements. Five years ago, only four states had legislation requiring stricter standards.
* Twenty-seven states have nutritional standards for competitive foods sold a la carte, in vending machines, in school stores or in school bake sales. Five years ago, only six states had nutritional standards for competitive foods.
* Twenty states have passed requirements for body mass index (BMI) screenings of children and adolescents or have passed legislation requiring other forms of weight-related assessments in schools. Five years ago, only four states had passed screening requirements.
* A recent analysis commissioned by TFAH found that the Baby Boomer generation has a higher rate of obesity compared with previous generations. As the Baby Boomer generation ages, obesity-related costs to Medicare and Medicaid are likely to grow significantly because of the large number of people in this population and its high rate of obesity. And, as Baby Boomers become Medicare-eligible, the percentage of obese adults age 65 and older could increase significantly. Estimates of the increase in percentage of obese adults range from 5.2 percent in New York to 16.3 percent in Alabama.
Key report recommendations for addressing obesity within health reform include:
* Ensuring every adult and child has access to coverage for preventive medical services, including nutrition and obesity counseling and screening for obesity-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes;
* Increasing the number of programs available in communities, schools, and childcare settings that help make nutritious foods more affordable and accessible and provide safe and healthy places for people to engage in physical activity; and
* Reducing Medicare expenditures by promoting proven programs that improve nutrition and increase physical activity among adults ages 55 to 64.
The report also calls for a National Strategy to Combat Obesity that would define roles and responsibilities for federal, state and local governments and promote collaboration among businesses, communities, schools and families. It would seek to advance policies that
* Provide healthy foods and beverages to students at schools;
* Increase the availability of affordable healthy foods in all communities;
* Increase the frequency, intensity, and duration of physical activity at school;
* Improve access to safe and healthy places to live, work, learn, and play;
* Limit screen time; and
* Encourage employers to provide workplace wellness programs.
The report was supported by a grant from RWJF.
State-by-State Adult Obesity Rankings
Note: 1 = Highest rate of adult obesity, 51 = lowest rate of adult obesity. Rankings are based on combining three years of data (2006-2008) from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to "stabilize" data for comparison purposes. This methodology, recommended by the CDC, compensates for any potential anomalies or usual changes due to the specific sample in any given year in any given state. States with a statistically significant (p<0.05) increase for one year are noted with an asterisk (*), states with statistically significant increases for two years in a row are noted with two asterisks (**), states with statistically significant increases for three years in a row are noted with three asterisks (***). Additional information about methodologies and confidence interval is available in the report. Adults with a body mass index, a calculation based on weight and height ratios, of 30 or higher are considered obese. 1. Mississippi*** (32.5%); 2. Alabama* (31.2%); 3. West Virginia (31.1%); 4. Tennessee*** (30.2%); 5. South Carolina (29.7%); 6. Oklahoma*** (29.5%); 7. Kentucky (29.0%); 8. Louisiana (28.9%); 9. Michigan*** (28.8%) 10. (tie) Arkansas (28.6%) and Ohio* (28.6%); 12. North Carolina*** (28.3%); 13. Missouri (28.1%); 14. (tie) Georgia (27.9%) and Texas (27.9%); 16. Indiana (27.4%); 17. Delaware*** (27.3%); 18. (tie) Alaska (27.2%) and Kansas*** (27.2%) 20. (tie) Nebraska (26.9%) and South Dakota*** (26.9%); 22. (tie) Iowa (26.7%) and North Dakota* (26.7%) and Pennsylvania** 26.7%; 25. (tie) Maryland*** (26.0%) and Wisconsin (26.0%); 27. Illinois 25.9%; 28. (tie) Oregon (25.4%) and Virginia (25.4) and Washington*** (25.4%); 31. Minnesota (25.3%); 32. Nevada* 25.1%; 33. (tie) Arizona** (24.8%) and Idaho (24.8%); 35. Maine* (24.7%); 36. New Mexico*** (24.6%); 37. New York** (24.5%) 38. Wyoming (24.3%); 39. (tie) Florida* (24.1%) and New Hampshire (24.1%); 41. California (23.6%); 42. New Jersey (23.4%); 43. Montana** (22.7%); 44. Utah (22.5%); 45. District of Columbia (22.3%); 46. Vermont** (22.1%); 47. Hawaii* (21.8%); 48. Rhode Island (21.7%); 49. Connecticut (21.3%); 50. Massachusetts (21.2%); 51. Colorado (18.9%)
State-by-State Obese and Overweight Children Ages 10-17 Rankings
Note: 1 = Highest rate of childhood overweight, 51 = lowest. Rankings are based on the National Survey of Children's Health, a phone survey of parents with children ages 10-17 conducted in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Additional information about methodologies and confidence intervals is available in the report. Children with a body mass index, a calculation based on weight and height ratios, at or above the 95th percentile for their age are considered obese and children at or above the 85th percentile are considered overweight. States with statistically significant (p<0.05) increases in combined obesity and overweight since the NSCH was last issued in 2003 are noted with an asterisk (*).
1. Mississippi* (44.4%); 2. Arkansas (37.5%); 3. Georgia (37.3%); 4. Kentucky (37.1%) 5. Tennessee (36.5%) 6. Alabama (36.1%); 7. Louisiana (35.9%); 8. West Virginia (35.5%); 9. District of Columbia (35.4%); 10. Illinois (34.9%); 11. Nevada* (34.2%); 12. Alaska (33.9%); 13. South Carolina (33.7%); 14. North Carolina (33.5%); 15. Ohio (33.3%); 16. Delaware (33.2%); 17. Florida (33.1%); 18. New York (32.9%); 19. New Mexico (32.7%) 20. Texas (32.2%) 21. Nebraska (31.5%); 22. Kansas (31.1%); 23. (tie) Missouri (31.0%) and New Jersey (31.0%) and Virginia (31.0%); 26. (tie) Arizona (30.6%) and Michigan (30.6%); 28. California (30.5%); 29. Rhode Island (30.1%); 30. Massachusetts (30.0%) 31. Indiana (29.9%) 32. Pennsylvania (29.7%); 33. (tie) Oklahoma (29.5%) and Washington (29.5%); 35. New Hampshire (29.4%); 36. Maryland (28.8%); 37. Hawaii (28.5%); 38. South Dakota (28.4%); 39. Maine (28.2%); 40. Wisconsin (27.9%); 41. Idaho (27.5%); 42. Colorado (27.2%); 43. Vermont (26.7%); 44. Iowa (26.5%); 45. (tie) Connecticut (25.7%) and North Dakota (25.7%) and Wyoming (25.7%); 48. Montana (25.6%); 49. Oregon (24.3%); 50. (tie) Minnesota (23.1%) and Utah (23.1%)
Trust for America's Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority.
Showing posts with label fat reduction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fat reduction. Show all posts
Friday, July 3, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Unhealthy Foods Hijack Your Brain
Today’ Re-Powering information. I know I tend to keep coming back to the topic of sugar, however it’s one that a lot of people struggle with. Sugar fatigues you, keeps you fat and breaks your body down. I have not tried either of the suggestions that Dr. Mercola recommend, but they both stand to reason as options. If sugar is something you battle, you may consider one of these two options. Read the article and Dr. Mercola’s comments.
When Unhealthy Foods Hijack Your Brain
junk foodsIn a book being published next week, former FDA chief Dr. David Kessler brings to consumers the disturbing conclusion of numerous brain studies -- some people really do have a harder time resisting bad foods.
At issue is how the brain becomes primed by different stimuli. Neuroscientists increasingly report that fat-and-sugar combinations in particular light up the brain's dopamine pathway -- its pleasure-sensing spot. This is the same pathway that conditions people to alcohol or drugs.
The culprits foods are "layered and loaded" with combinations of fat, sugar and salt, and they are often so processed that you don't even have to chew much.
Overeaters must take responsibility, too, and basically retrain their brains to resist the lure, says Kessler.
Sources:
Washington Post April 23, 2009
Dr. Mercola''s Comments
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Many people can relate to what David Kessler, the former FDA chief, calls “conditioned hypereating” -- a drive to eat sugary, greasy processed foods that has nothing to do with hunger.
It can happen when you walk by a vending machine, drive by one of your favorite restaurants or bakeries, or even when you’re sitting at home watching TV. Suddenly you get a craving for something you know isn’t good for you -- cookies, French fries, ice cream, potato chips, that sort of thing -- and your willpower seems to crumble.
This is an epidemic problem, as in the United States 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is for processed food, and junk food is available just about everywhere, including in hospitals and schools.
It’s clear that something about these foods is able to wield an incredibly strong force over many of us, to the point that obesity has been named the fastest growing health threat in the United States, and two-thirds of adults are already overweight or obese.
So what is going on here? What about these foods compel people to overeat them at the expense of their waistline, and more importantly their health?
Why It’s So Easy to Be Addicted to Junk Food and Fast Food
Taste, convenience and cost certainly play a role in making junk foods appealing, but there’s more to it than that. The large amounts of sugar, salt and grease in junk foods are clearly addictive.
In one study, rats fed a diet containing 25 percent sugar became anxious when the sugar was removed -- displaying symptoms similar to people going through drug withdrawals, such as chattering teeth and the shakes.
A link was found between opioids, or your brain’s 'pleasure chemicals,' and a craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods. It is thought that high-fat foods stimulate the opioids, as when researchers stimulated rats’ brains with a synthetic version of the natural opioid enkephalin, the rats ate up to six times their normal intake of fat.
Further, long-lasting changes in rats' brain chemistry, similar to those caused by morphine or heroin use, were also noted. According to researchers, this means that even simple exposure to pleasurable foods is enough to change gene expression, which suggests an addiction to the food.
Your Genes Remember When You Eat Sugar
When you eat sugar, not only do your genes turn off controls designed to protect you from heart disease and diabetes, but the impact lasts for two weeks!
Even more concerning, if you eat poorly for a long time your DNA may become permanently altered and the effects could be passed on to your children and grandchildren.
In other words, you are born with a set of genes, but the expression of those genes is not set in stone. Your genes can be either activated or silenced by various factors including your diet and even your mind. It is not your genes that dictate your future health, but rather the expression of those genes that matter.
So in the case of eating sugar, it’s now known that this switches off good genes that protect your body from disease. This is just one of many reasons why you may want to seriously limit or eliminate sugar from your diet.
Sugar is Incredibly Addictive
Another reason we know that people’s love for sugar goes far beyond taste is because of its addictive properties.
Refined sugar is far more addictive than cocaine -- it is one of the most addictive and harmful substances currently known. In fact, an astonishing 94 percent of rats who were allowed to choose between sugar, water and cocaine, chose sugar.
Even rats who were addicted to cocaine quickly switched their preference to sugar, once it was offered as a choice.
The researchers speculate that the sweet receptors (two protein receptors located on your tongue), which evolved in ancestral times when diets were very low in sugar, have not adapted to modern times’ high sugar consumption.
Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal self-control mechanisms, and thus lead to addiction.
Your Emotions Play a Major Role, Too
As Kessler said, "Once you know what's driving your behavior, you can put steps into place" to change it.
What this means is whenever you feel the desire to binge on junk foods, it’s necessary that you have a system in place to help curb those cravings.
The system that I personally use and most highly recommend is called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over 5,000 years, but without the invasiveness of needles.
When your body's energy system is disrupted, you are more likely to experience distractions and discomforts related to food, and more likely to engage in emotional eating. Instead, if you engage your body's subtle energy system with EFT, the distracting discomforts like food cravings often subside.
The other major factor that will help you to break an addiction to junk food is tailoring your diet to your nutritional type. Nutritional Typing will teach you which foods you are designed to eat and the ideal proportions of the types of nutrients you require, whether you are a 'Carb', a 'Protein', or a 'Mixed' type.
When you eat the foods that are right for your biochemistry, it will push your body toward its ideal weight and you’ll notice that food cravings largely subside. This is because you’re giving your body the fuel it needs, so you’ll feel satiated throughout the day and be far less tempted by the sugary and greasy foods that once had a hold over you.
End.
Have an uncomfortable day!
When Unhealthy Foods Hijack Your Brain
junk foodsIn a book being published next week, former FDA chief Dr. David Kessler brings to consumers the disturbing conclusion of numerous brain studies -- some people really do have a harder time resisting bad foods.
At issue is how the brain becomes primed by different stimuli. Neuroscientists increasingly report that fat-and-sugar combinations in particular light up the brain's dopamine pathway -- its pleasure-sensing spot. This is the same pathway that conditions people to alcohol or drugs.
The culprits foods are "layered and loaded" with combinations of fat, sugar and salt, and they are often so processed that you don't even have to chew much.
Overeaters must take responsibility, too, and basically retrain their brains to resist the lure, says Kessler.
Sources:
Washington Post April 23, 2009
Dr. Mercola''s Comments
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Many people can relate to what David Kessler, the former FDA chief, calls “conditioned hypereating” -- a drive to eat sugary, greasy processed foods that has nothing to do with hunger.
It can happen when you walk by a vending machine, drive by one of your favorite restaurants or bakeries, or even when you’re sitting at home watching TV. Suddenly you get a craving for something you know isn’t good for you -- cookies, French fries, ice cream, potato chips, that sort of thing -- and your willpower seems to crumble.
This is an epidemic problem, as in the United States 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is for processed food, and junk food is available just about everywhere, including in hospitals and schools.
It’s clear that something about these foods is able to wield an incredibly strong force over many of us, to the point that obesity has been named the fastest growing health threat in the United States, and two-thirds of adults are already overweight or obese.
So what is going on here? What about these foods compel people to overeat them at the expense of their waistline, and more importantly their health?
Why It’s So Easy to Be Addicted to Junk Food and Fast Food
Taste, convenience and cost certainly play a role in making junk foods appealing, but there’s more to it than that. The large amounts of sugar, salt and grease in junk foods are clearly addictive.
In one study, rats fed a diet containing 25 percent sugar became anxious when the sugar was removed -- displaying symptoms similar to people going through drug withdrawals, such as chattering teeth and the shakes.
A link was found between opioids, or your brain’s 'pleasure chemicals,' and a craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods. It is thought that high-fat foods stimulate the opioids, as when researchers stimulated rats’ brains with a synthetic version of the natural opioid enkephalin, the rats ate up to six times their normal intake of fat.
Further, long-lasting changes in rats' brain chemistry, similar to those caused by morphine or heroin use, were also noted. According to researchers, this means that even simple exposure to pleasurable foods is enough to change gene expression, which suggests an addiction to the food.
Your Genes Remember When You Eat Sugar
When you eat sugar, not only do your genes turn off controls designed to protect you from heart disease and diabetes, but the impact lasts for two weeks!
Even more concerning, if you eat poorly for a long time your DNA may become permanently altered and the effects could be passed on to your children and grandchildren.
In other words, you are born with a set of genes, but the expression of those genes is not set in stone. Your genes can be either activated or silenced by various factors including your diet and even your mind. It is not your genes that dictate your future health, but rather the expression of those genes that matter.
So in the case of eating sugar, it’s now known that this switches off good genes that protect your body from disease. This is just one of many reasons why you may want to seriously limit or eliminate sugar from your diet.
Sugar is Incredibly Addictive
Another reason we know that people’s love for sugar goes far beyond taste is because of its addictive properties.
Refined sugar is far more addictive than cocaine -- it is one of the most addictive and harmful substances currently known. In fact, an astonishing 94 percent of rats who were allowed to choose between sugar, water and cocaine, chose sugar.
Even rats who were addicted to cocaine quickly switched their preference to sugar, once it was offered as a choice.
The researchers speculate that the sweet receptors (two protein receptors located on your tongue), which evolved in ancestral times when diets were very low in sugar, have not adapted to modern times’ high sugar consumption.
Therefore, the abnormally high stimulation of these receptors by our sugar-rich diets generates excessive reward signals in your brain, which have the potential to override normal self-control mechanisms, and thus lead to addiction.
Your Emotions Play a Major Role, Too
As Kessler said, "Once you know what's driving your behavior, you can put steps into place" to change it.
What this means is whenever you feel the desire to binge on junk foods, it’s necessary that you have a system in place to help curb those cravings.
The system that I personally use and most highly recommend is called the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT is a form of psychological acupressure, based on the same energy meridians used in traditional acupuncture to treat physical and emotional ailments for over 5,000 years, but without the invasiveness of needles.
When your body's energy system is disrupted, you are more likely to experience distractions and discomforts related to food, and more likely to engage in emotional eating. Instead, if you engage your body's subtle energy system with EFT, the distracting discomforts like food cravings often subside.
The other major factor that will help you to break an addiction to junk food is tailoring your diet to your nutritional type. Nutritional Typing will teach you which foods you are designed to eat and the ideal proportions of the types of nutrients you require, whether you are a 'Carb', a 'Protein', or a 'Mixed' type.
When you eat the foods that are right for your biochemistry, it will push your body toward its ideal weight and you’ll notice that food cravings largely subside. This is because you’re giving your body the fuel it needs, so you’ll feel satiated throughout the day and be far less tempted by the sugary and greasy foods that once had a hold over you.
End.
Have an uncomfortable day!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Food Diary for Weight Loss
Today’s RePowering Information – I have always been a big beliver in keeping a diary for weight loss success (as well as success in general). There is something so powerful to writing things down such as goals and food intake. Most times when you see a weight loss success story, it included recording food intake in one form or another. Knowing you are going to write it down and a coach is going to check it makes you think about making healthier choices. But don’t just take my work for it. Read the new story below.
Dear (Food) DiaryBy SANJAY GUPTA, M.D. Illustration by Corliss Elizabeth Williams for TIME
Article ToolsPrintEmailSphereAddThis RSSYahoo! Buzz Two nights ago, I had a handful of M&M's. In fact, I can tell you I ate seven of the peanut kind, which is my favorite. Under normal circumstances, I would've simply grabbed a bunch, mindlessly eaten them while talking to a colleague and forgotten them entirely.
Instead, I know the specific number I ate because I am keeping a food diary. I write down everything I consume, with great detail. I had a single packet of ketchup with my eggs the other morning and 4 oz. (113 g) of green-tea-flavored frozen yogurt with my daughter two days before that. I started the diary because I wanted to test the striking new results of a paper published in the August issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Scientists at several clinical-research centers in the U.S. found that dieters who kept a food diary lost twice as much weight as those who didn't.
The study tracked nearly 1,700 overweight or obese adults across the country who were at least 25 years old. Men and women were included, and 44% of the group was African American. All participants were encouraged to use such weight-loss maintenance strategies as calorie restriction, weekly group sessions and moderately intensive exercise as well as to keep a food journal. The senior investigator, Victor Stevens of Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., told me that "hands down, the most successful weight-loss method was keeping a record of what you eat." In the six-month study, participants who kept a food journal six or seven days a week lost an average of 18 lb. (8 kg), compared with an average of 9 lb. (4 kg) lost by non-diary keepers.
Of course, as you might guess, "it's not just writing it down that counts," Stevens says. It is also about using that record to identify eating habits that need to be modified. While most people think they know what they eat, they really have only a general idea and tend to have selective memory, especially when it comes to the foods that aren't so good for us. With a detailed food diary, you can see where those extra calories are coming from.
As soon as I started writing down all the foods I was eating, I wondered exactly how many calories I was consuming. I found a terrific site called the Daily Plate at livestrong.com. It not only lets you accurately count calories but also helps you find people with eating habits similar to your own. A virtual cheerleading squad could help motivate you to stay away from that bag of M&M's, or whatever food weaknesses you may have.
While keeping a food diary works, it's best to do so in conjunction with regular exercise. Losing just 10 lb. (4.5 kg) can help control high blood pressure and reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Drop a few pounds, and you might get an immediate thank-you from your knees and other joints. It is also likely that your sleep will improve, as will your energy levels.
There is another part of the food-diary experiment that really seems to be working for me. In addition to being honest and diligent about the diary, I am showing everything in my diet diary—down to the last morsel—to my wife. Stevens says it's all about accountability. You may have been thinking about eating that extra cookie, he says, "but you didn't want it to show up on the diary at the end of the day." Tonight, we are eating 6 oz. (170 g) of grilled tilapia with steamed broccoli and a handful of steamed brown rice. I originally thought we were going to have steak tonight, but my wife got hold of my food diary. And, yes, she saw those M&M's.
— With reporting by Danielle N. Dellorto
Dear (Food) DiaryBy SANJAY GUPTA, M.D. Illustration by Corliss Elizabeth Williams for TIME
Article ToolsPrintEmailSphereAddThis RSSYahoo! Buzz Two nights ago, I had a handful of M&M's. In fact, I can tell you I ate seven of the peanut kind, which is my favorite. Under normal circumstances, I would've simply grabbed a bunch, mindlessly eaten them while talking to a colleague and forgotten them entirely.
Instead, I know the specific number I ate because I am keeping a food diary. I write down everything I consume, with great detail. I had a single packet of ketchup with my eggs the other morning and 4 oz. (113 g) of green-tea-flavored frozen yogurt with my daughter two days before that. I started the diary because I wanted to test the striking new results of a paper published in the August issue of American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Scientists at several clinical-research centers in the U.S. found that dieters who kept a food diary lost twice as much weight as those who didn't.
The study tracked nearly 1,700 overweight or obese adults across the country who were at least 25 years old. Men and women were included, and 44% of the group was African American. All participants were encouraged to use such weight-loss maintenance strategies as calorie restriction, weekly group sessions and moderately intensive exercise as well as to keep a food journal. The senior investigator, Victor Stevens of Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., told me that "hands down, the most successful weight-loss method was keeping a record of what you eat." In the six-month study, participants who kept a food journal six or seven days a week lost an average of 18 lb. (8 kg), compared with an average of 9 lb. (4 kg) lost by non-diary keepers.
Of course, as you might guess, "it's not just writing it down that counts," Stevens says. It is also about using that record to identify eating habits that need to be modified. While most people think they know what they eat, they really have only a general idea and tend to have selective memory, especially when it comes to the foods that aren't so good for us. With a detailed food diary, you can see where those extra calories are coming from.
As soon as I started writing down all the foods I was eating, I wondered exactly how many calories I was consuming. I found a terrific site called the Daily Plate at livestrong.com. It not only lets you accurately count calories but also helps you find people with eating habits similar to your own. A virtual cheerleading squad could help motivate you to stay away from that bag of M&M's, or whatever food weaknesses you may have.
While keeping a food diary works, it's best to do so in conjunction with regular exercise. Losing just 10 lb. (4.5 kg) can help control high blood pressure and reduce your risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Drop a few pounds, and you might get an immediate thank-you from your knees and other joints. It is also likely that your sleep will improve, as will your energy levels.
There is another part of the food-diary experiment that really seems to be working for me. In addition to being honest and diligent about the diary, I am showing everything in my diet diary—down to the last morsel—to my wife. Stevens says it's all about accountability. You may have been thinking about eating that extra cookie, he says, "but you didn't want it to show up on the diary at the end of the day." Tonight, we are eating 6 oz. (170 g) of grilled tilapia with steamed broccoli and a handful of steamed brown rice. I originally thought we were going to have steak tonight, but my wife got hold of my food diary. And, yes, she saw those M&M's.
— With reporting by Danielle N. Dellorto
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