Let The Revolution Begin!

A revolution has begun amongst those of us who are health and fitness advocates, and celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver is leading the way with his new ABC Show called “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution”. 

Admittedly, I don’t watch television.  However, I do feel that this is quality television that is worth my time and everyone else’s time to be watching. For those of you who have been asleep about the obesity epidemic amongst adults and children, this show certainly is a wake up call to our nation.

The premiere episode takes place in Huntington, WV, which is reported to be the unhealthiest city in America.  Jamie is on a mission to help educate the town about how their poor lifestyle choices are affecting the town’s health, and the importance of eating a healthy diet and how to prepare healthy meals.

The Revolution is met with resistance

Jamie is not received very well in the town.  In fact, he is met with a lot of resistance; basically viewing him as if he were their enemy.  It’s so sad to see a town that already knows that their poor lifestyle habits have placed them on the map as “the unhealthiest city in America” have this kind of reaction.  I couldn’t help but ask myself why are these people so reluctant to change and improve their health?  Why do they look at Jamie Oliver as their enemy?  Why are they being so resistant? 

Hate to say this, but Huntington, WV is just like any other city in America.  People are resistant to change.  It’s hard and it takes work.  People know they shouldn’t be eating the junk they eat and yet continue doing so despite any current health problems or health risks.

Jamie, who has an abundance of resources at his disposal, certainly is fighting an uphill battle with the people of Huntington.  Watching the walls and red tape that he encounters and his charge to lead the way to overcome those obstacles is inspiring to someone like me who is trying to help spread the same message.   

The Edwards Family

One subject that the show touches on, but not in much depth is child obesity.  Jamie befriends The Edwards Family and meets their teenage son, Justin.  Justin and Jamie bond immediately as Justin sees Jamie as someone who can help him and wants help.  Justin confides to Jamie that he’s tired of being heavy and bullied by the other kids at school about his weight.  If you watch closely enough to the episode, it is very clear that overweight kids know they are overweight and desperately want help.  They want to learn how to improve their health and lose weight. 

Jamie shows the Edwards family just how unhealthy the foods they eat are.  The mother of the family, Stacie Edwards, becomes tearful and emotional when she becomes aware that what she is feeding her family has no nutritional value and that she is putting their health and their future at risk.  Jamie buys them a week’s worth of healthy groceries, teaches them how to cook and provides them with healthy recipies they can cook.  Unfortunately, when Jamie returns to visit the family a week later, he is suspicious that they went back to their unhealthy eating habits.

School Lunches

The school nutritional regulations are atrocious and make no sense.  The schools feed the kids the most unhealthy, processed foods.  Making the switch over to feeding the children more healthy and nutritious meals shockingly doesn’t meet school nutritional guidelines.  The red tape and regulations are killing our kids.  The sad truth is that for many kids, the only meal they get is their school lunch.  I guess that explains why kids will eat something they know is gross and bad for them, simply because they are hungry.

Getting kids to eat healthier is not impossible, however, as Jamie experienced, you really need to get the parents and schools on the same page about nutrition as ultimately, we are the ones feeding our children and teaching them about foods, nutrition and health.

Visit Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution site and join the revolution! http://www.jamieoliver.com/

To get an idea of what kids are being fed in schools, check out this clip from the show.

Child Obesity Takes Center Stage

With Child Obesity in the national spotlight, this is an ideal opportunity to talk about some of the issues concerning it. 

It’s not baby fat, it’s obesity

According to an article published in the February, 2010 journal Clinical Pediatrics, research suggests that the "tipping point" in obesity often occurs before two years of age, and sometimes as early as three months, when the child is learning how much and what to eat.  The Clinical Pediatrics study suggests obesity prevention efforts should begin before age two, when children reach a "tipping point" in a progression that leads to obesity later in life.  This study indicates that we may need to discuss inappropriate weight gain early in infancy to affect meaningful changes in the current trend of obesity.

What could possibly be causing obesity in infants?  Could it be that they are being fed more calories than they need?  Food is given to crying babies to comfort and quiet them. For instance, if a baby is crying, a new mother’s instinct is to give her baby a bottle thinking it is hungry when perhaps it isn’t. 

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar

Perhaps baby food has evolved over the years becoming more and more processed containing corn syrup and more sugar?  No doubt more and more children are exposed to processed foods, snacks, fast foods and ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup over the past 10-20 years.  Do parents even bother to look at the fine print of ingredients in a product they are feeding their children?

NOW is the time to act

I’m not going to regurgitate all the child obesity statistics.  This is an issue about health. We know that today’s children are overweight, and that they are dealing with diseases that were once known as “adult diseases”. 

It is up to as a parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to take action now.  Children eat what we feed them and it’s up to us to stop feeding them fast food, sugary snacks and junk food. Get active with children.  Take them to the park to the playground, or go skating with them, play tennis, etc.  The list of activities you can you can DO with children are endless.

The Let’s Move Campaign

This past week, First Lady, Michelle Obama, launched her Let’s Move Campaign to help solve the child obesity epidemic.   This is certainly a step in the right direction to stop talking about the issue, but to take action and do something to help solve the problem. As a Fitness Professional/Natural Health Advocate, I applaud Michelle Obama for helping to bring SOLUTIONS to Child Obesity.

The Let's Move campaign has 4 Pillars.

1st Pillar-Helping parents make healthy family choices.  Parents need the tools to make it easier to understand how to help their kids stay healthy. Many parents know certain foods are bad for their kids, but don't know the solutions.

Children learn from the choices they see adults make.  If children see parents enjoying nutritious foods and physical activity, they’re more likely to do the same.   With greater understanding and opportunities for good nutrition and physical activity, parents can take simple steps so busy families can live healthier lives.

• Empowering Consumers - By the end of the year, the Food and Drug Administration will begin working with retailers and manufacturers to adopt new nutritionally sound and consumer friendly front-of-package labeling to provide 65 million parents in America and other caregivers with easy access to the information they need to make healthy choices for their children.

2^nd Pillar – Healthier Schools - Many children consume at least half of their daily calories at school. As families work to ensure our kids eat right and have active play at home, we also need to ensure our kids have access to healthy meals in their schools. With more than 31 million children participating in the National School Lunch Program and more than 11 million participating in the National School Breakfast Program, good nutrition at school is more important than ever. Let’s move to get healthier food in our nation’s schools.

·            Healthier US Schools Challenge Program establishes rigorous standards for schools’ food quality, participation in meal programs, physical activity, and nutrition education – the key components that make for healthy and active kids – and provides recognition for schools that meet these standards.

3^rd Pillar – Physical Activity - Children need 60 minutes of active and vigorous play every day to grow up to a healthy weight.(source) If this sounds like a lot, consider that 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 ½ hours to using entertainment media including TV, computers, video games, cell phones and movies  in a typical day, and only a third of high school students get the recommended levels of physical activity. 

4^th Pillar - Accessing Healthy & Affordable Food - More than 23 million Americans, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income urban and rural neighborhoods that are more than a mile from a supermarket. These communities, where access to affordable, quality, and nutritious foods is limited, are known as food deserts.  Lack of access to proper nutrition is one reason why many children are not eating the recommended levels of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

Another issue is that healthier food choices are more expensive than unhealthy, cheap, processed junk foods.  As part of the President’s proposed FY 2011 budget, the Administration announced a new program – the Healthy Food Financing Initiative -- a partnership between the U.S. Departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health and Human Services which will invest $400 million a year to provide innovative financing to bring grocery stores to underserved areas and help places such as convenience stores and bodegas carry healthier food options.  Grants will also help bring farmers markets and fresh foods into underserved communities, boosting both family health and local economies.  Through these initiatives and private sector engagement, the Administration will work to eliminate food deserts across the country within seven years.

If you are a parent, doctor, fitness professional, health advocate, check out the Let's Move website http://www.letsmove.gov/index.html and let’s do our part to ACT NOW and help make a difference to improve the health of our children.  This affects not only our children’s future, but our future and the future of our country.  

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100211121832.htm

http://www.letsmove.gov

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/09/obama.child.obesity/index.html

High Fructose Corn Syrup – It’s Everywhere and it’s making us Fat

Obesity is not just an epidemic here in the States and in the UK, it’s also in other countries in the world where you wouldn’t think it would be an issue.  So what’s the culprit?  High Fructose Corn Syrup.  It’s in just about every thing we consume.

Dietary carbohydrates, especially fructose, are the primary source of a substance called glycerol-3-phosphate, which causes fat to become fixed in fat tissue. At the same time, this diet raises insulin levels, which prevents fat from being released.

This leads to a simple equation: dietary carbohydrates such as high fructose corn syrup lead to obesity, even if you are actually malnourished.

In countries around the world, waistlines are expanding so rapidly that health experts recently coined a term for the epidemic: globesity. One in three of the world’s adults is overweight and one in 10 is obese.

Much of this can be blamed on the simple theory that if you take in more calories than your burn, you will gain weight. But the issue is much more complex than that.

There are several more or less obvious reasons for the dramatic rise in obesity since the 1970s, including:

• Increased consumption of highly processed food, especially fructose
• Increased portion sizes of restaurant food and grocery products
• Increased driving and computer use (sedentary activities)
• Increased modernization
• Certain medications
• Endocrine disorders and genetics
• Changing social perceptions of what is "normal" weight

There are also some not so obvious reasons why people are gaining weight at alarming rates. It may be that far more important than the number of calories you consume in a day may be the type of calories you consume.

And if you’re eating a lot of fructose (and there’s a good chance you are considering it’s the number one source of calories in the United States!), it could be programming your body to become fat.

Ironically, the very products that most people rely on to lose weight -- low-fat diet foods -- are often those that contain the most fructose! Even “natural” diet foods often contain fructose as a sweetener.

It’s Time to Cut Out the Fructose

Ideally I recommend that you avoid sugar, in all forms. This is especially important for people who are overweight or have diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure.

But if you are just starting out and looking to cut out fructose first, the largest contributor is easily soda, for which HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) is the primary sweetener. But fructose is not only in sugary drinks. It’s in the vast majority of processed foods, even those you wouldn’t think of as sweet, such as ketchup, soup, salad dressing, bread and crackers.

So even if you don’t drink soda, if you eat processed foods you’re likely consuming fructose -- and a lot of it.

Even natural sweeteners like agave syrup should be avoided, as it is a highly processed sap that is almost all fructose! 

If you’re looking for the occasional sweet treat, Dr. Mercola recommends, in this order:

1. The herb stevia 
2. Raw, organic honey
3. Organic cane sugar

Small amounts of whole fruit, which do contain fructose, are not a problem. If you’re healthy, you can enjoy fruit in moderation.

The next time you’re in the supermarket, please be sure to check the ingredients.  If High Fructose Corn Syrup is one of the ingredients, put the item back on the shelf and look at other comparable products until you find one that doesn’t contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. 

To learn more about High Fructose Corn Syrup, check out http://www.sweetsurprise.com

Source: Dr. Mercola Alternative Explanation why People Get Fat

Obesity - The New Norm

Here’s quite a reality check - I am considered to be abnormal. How? I am fit, healthy, and have a lower body fat to muscle ratio. What is the "norm"? Sadly, being overweight or obese has become the "norm" and until we reverse this trend, it is going to cost us. 43 percent of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2018, and the nation will spend $344 billion to address health-related problems.

The Fat Gap, a new term coined by British researchers, refers to a discrepancy between how people see themselves and the number on the scale. What constitutes being overweight or obese is now considered the “norm” because those around us--friends, family and colleagues—are overweight or obese.

In a British study reported September 23, 2009, in the Telegraph, only one person in 10 identified themselves as being obese, when in fact one in four was obese (roughly 30 or more pounds overweight). The result, people are unaware they are obese because being fat is now seen as the 'norm'. This lack of awareness places individuals at risk for medical problems triggered by obesity.

In Carole Carson’s article on this subject in the Huffington Post, Weight Loss: The Fat Gap, Generation Gap And Appetite Gap, she writes “Lest you think I am judging these individuals for their lack of self-awareness, I hasten to add that when, at five feet one inch, I tipped the scales at 183 pounds, I did not see myself as obese. Even though I was 60 pounds overweight, I saw myself as slightly pudgy. Besides, I didn't think I looked any worse than the people around me. I was trapped in the fat gap and was in the 90th percentile for risk of heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. If I hadn't lost weight and got fit, I would likely have become disabled or died.”

Dr. Nick Yphantides, author of My Big Fat Greek Diet says, "you have to change the way you see before you can change the way you look, and this certainly applies to how we see ourselves."

So, why are we becoming a society of “fat people”. Processed/junk foods that are part of the average person’s diet was not around in the 1920’s or 1930’s. Many of the high calorie foods we eat have been scientifically engineered to appeal to our love of foods that are sweet, salty and fatty. These high calorie foods go down fast and we never have a sense of satiety. If food doesn't trigger a sense of having eaten enough, individuals keep eating even though they may already have consumed more calories than required to maintain their weight.

Not only are we consuming foods that have little or no nutritional value, we are also unknowingly consuming more calories. To add more gasoline to this fire, most people are what has become known as couch potatoes, therefore, not burning/utilizing the calories we consume.

As Carole Carson stated in her article, “We have choices, and we must make them in full knowledge that our future is at stake. If we want to enjoy longer, healthier lives and reduce our burgeoning medical expenses, we'll have to find or create ways to close the gaps.”

The answer to all of this is very simple, but is too hard and complex for most people. Be aware of the foods you eat. Before your order a meal, ask yourself if what you are choosing to eat is healthy and good for your body. Healthy, nutritious foods aren’t bland and boring. Be aware of how much food you consume in a sitting. Get off the couch and exercise. The human body was not designed to be sedentary, and the fact that we are going against nature, is costing us dearly not only in our own personal health, but as a country.

The Obesity-Migraine Connection

Overweight people who are between the ages of 20 and 55 may have a higher risk of experiencing migraine headaches, according to a study presented at the American Academy of Neurology.

The study found that age, gender and the way that body fat is distributed affected the risk of migraine. Those who were 20 to 55 years of age and who had larger waistlines were more likely to have migraine attacks, on average, than people of the same age who had smaller waistlines.

About 37 percent of women between the ages of 2 to 55 who had excess fat around the belly reported migraine, compared to 29 percent without excess belly fat.

In men 20 to 55 years old, 20 percent of those with abdominal obesity reported migraine as compared to 16 percent of those without abdominal obesity. However in women 20 to 55 years of age with excess belly fat, the odds of migraine went up 1.3 times after adjusting for heart disease risk factors and for total body obesity.

"These results, while still in the early stages, suggest that losing weight in the stomach area may be beneficial for younger people who experience migraine and especially so for women," said study author B. Lee Peterlin, DO, of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Men and women have body tissue distributed in different ways. After puberty women show more fatty tissue deposits in the hip and thigh area while men predominantly have more fatty tissue in the belly region. After menopause, women show more fatty tissue in the belly area as well. For some diseases, including heart disease and diabetes, excess fat around the waistline appears to be a stronger risk factor than total body obesity," Peterlin said.

Source: American Academy of Neurology (2009, February 13). Have Migraine? Bigger Waistline May Be Linked. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/02/090212161812.htm

Food Industry Bombards Children with Television Advertising

Childhood obesity in the United States is reaching epidemic proportions. With more than one fourth of advertising on daytime and prime time television devoted to foods and beverages and continuing questions about the role television plays in obesity, a study in the November/December issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior examines how food advertising aimed at children might be a large contributor to the problem.

More than one 4th of advertising on daytime & prime time TV devoted to foods and beverages questions the role TV plays in child obesity.

Children's networks had the highest percentage of food-related ads predominately for sugary cereals & sweets, high fat food, fast-foods, chips/crackers. Fast-food restaurants, sugary food, chips/crackers, and sugar-added beverages collectively accounted for more than 70% of food commercials; 34% were for ''food on the run,'' fast-food restaurants and convenience food. In contrast, fruits, vegetables, and juices were advertised in only 1.7% of the commercials to children.

Compared to TV for a general audience, children's networks expose young viewers to 76% more food commercials per hour than did the other networks.

To add insult to injury, Kellogg's claims that cereals can boost immunity. Yes, pictured on a box of the sugary kid’s cereal, Cocoa Krispies, is the claim that it can help boost your child’s immunity. Nothing like jumping on the Swine Flu Consumer Conscious bandwagon. This news, led to a huge backlash amongst professionals in health, fitness, and nutrition .

"The idea that eating Cocoa Krispies will keep a kid from getting swine flu, or from catching a cold, doesn't make sense," says Marion Nestle, nutrition professor at New York University.

Kellogg’s scrapped their controversial immune-system claims from its Cocoa Krispies and Rice Krispies cereal boxes two days after a USA TODAY story revealed that a growing number of critics — including San Francisco's city attorney — were seriously questioning the wording bannered across the cereal boxes that read: "Now helps support your child's IMMUNITY (sic)."


Sources:
Elsevier Health Sciences (2009, November 5). TV Bombards Children With Commercials For High-fat And High-sugar Foods. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/11/091104181155.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2009-11-02-cereal-immunity-claim_N.htm

Benefits of Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)

CoQ10 has so many benefits and I am constantly hearing about more and more updates about this supplement. CoQ10 is an antioxidant that prevents oxidation and hardening of the arteries. CoQ10 has been shown to treat many things, from heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol to diabetes, breast cancer.

Coenzyme Q10 is called ubiquinone because it is ubiquitous, meaning “everywhere present”. CoQ10 is found in every living cell. Without CoQ10 in optimum amounts, we would suffer from various maladies. CoQ10 is a vital co-factor for supporting health—especially within the heart and cardiovascular system

Technically, CoQ10 is referred to as “vitamin-like” substance or a “co-factor” because it is produced naturally by the body. However, some experts consider it as a vitamin, an essential nutrient needed by all the cells in the body to sustain life.

Latest news about CoQ10 from Dr. Mercola is that CoQ10 fights obesity. Coenzyme Q10 may protect or retard the development of fatty liver related to obesity.

Many people lack this enzyme and according to Frank Mangano, Author of “The Blood Pressure Miracle,” reported a study that people with hypertension who were given CoQ10, ½ of the participants were able to go off one to three of their current blood pressure medications.

According to Nutrimedika, clinical studies have shown that CoQ10 can treat periodontal disease. CoQ10 is also being investigated in treating cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s and even immune system disorders including AIDS.

“Studies show that most people with congestive heart failure have a deficiency of CoQ10 in their heart muscle. The lower the levels, the worse the congestive heart failure. But studies also show that patients who were supposed to die 15 years ago from congestive heart failure are still alive today primarily because of taking Coenzyme Q10 daily.” William Lee Cowden, MD, Cardiologist

As more and more research is being done on CoQ10, I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about it.



Sources:
Mercola.com
Frank Mangano – The Blood Pressure Miracle
Nutrimedika.com

Good Health Starts in The Supermarket

It’s no secret that Health is one of the hottest topics right now and that the obesity rate amongst not only adults, but children continues to sky rocket. More often than not, when you see an obese child, the parent tends to be obese as well.

Improving your health and preventing health issues with our children starts in the supermarket. Have you taken a good look at the items in your shopping cart before you check out? On a recent trip to my local supermarket, I noticed an overweight young woman with her overweight children. I couldn’t help but take a look to see what was in her shopping cart. Sadly, what was in there were items that had no nutritional value at all what so ever. No water, fruit, vegetables, lean proteins, milk, eggs. There were lots of sugary, high calories sodas, maple syrup, crackers loaded with sodium and unhealthy fats. Pure junk. This is the typical shopping cart I see all the time.

I asked this young mother if I could take a picture of her shopping cart. She proudly said “Yes,” as my shopping cart was next to hers. While I was taking pictures of her cart, not once did it ever cross this woman’s mind to see what was in my shopping cart.

This is a photo of my shopping cart. As you can see from the photos, there is quite a nutritional gap between my cart and hers. My cart contains fresh fruits, vegetables, low fat milk, water, eggs, yogurt and even a healthy snack. Although my shopping cart is a great example of what a shopping cart should look like, the sad truth is that rarely do I see another cart in the supermarket that looks like mine.

If you take notice of the average grocery cart when you are in the supermarket, you will see many carts piled high with soda, white bread, frozen dinners, chips, ice cream, processed cheese, sugary breakfast cereals, cookies, etc. Most of the items in the average shopping cart have no nutritional value. Most people don’t think about the items they are putting in their cart. I don’t think that young mother looks at her children thinking to herself that her children are overweight and perhaps she should feed them foods that aren’t quite so sugary and full of fat.

It is us, each individual who needs to reform our own personal health. The next time you’re in the supermarket buying groceries, be aware of the choices you’re making. Your choices not only affect you, but they affect your children as well. Take responsibility and read the labels. If an item has more than 12 grams of sugar per serving, put it back on the shelf. If the item contains High Fructose Corn Syrup, put it back on the shelf. If you cannot pronounce the majority of the ingredients in a product, put it back on the shelf.

It is possible to find healthy snacks that the whole family will enjoy. I discovered this snack in my local Kroger supermarket and have recommended this product to my clients as a healtheir alternative to potato chips and corn chips.

Before you go to the checkout counter, take a look at what’s in your cart and ask yourself if the foods in your cart are nutrient rich, quality calories. Hopefully your answer is yes. If not, it's not too late to do a Shopping Cart Extreme Makeover before you leave the store.