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According to a March 2002 Harris Poll reported on CNN, 80% of people over 25
are overweight, based on their body mass index. In 1995 the figure was
71%. In 1990 it was 64% and in 1983, just 58%.
That’s a remarkable rise in so short a time and experts agree it
constitutes an “epidemic” of overweight. What they don’t agree on is why
Americans are expanding so much and so fast.
* Lack of exercise. Virtually everyone agrees that Americans don’t move
as much or as fast as they should. But there’s been concern about our
sedentary lifestyle since at least the 50s so it’s hard to see our couch
potato status as causing the sudden rise in overweight.
* Tasty, inexpensive fast food meals. There has already been one
lawsuit based on the idea that a fast food outlet caused two young people to
become overweight,
* Increasingly generous portion sizes both in restaurants and at home.
* A general failure on the part of Americans to do the right thing.
This view was summed up nicely by Dr. Louis Aronne of Cornell University’s
Weill Medical College who told CNN “If Americans were to make the
effort to manage their weight using a variety of options, including better
nutrition, more exercise, approved medications or even surgical
approaches, we would be rewarded with significantly better health.”
====================
Too good to be true
====================
The top suspect in many peoples’ opinion is the United States
Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid. Published in 1992, it replaced earlier
charts that simply grouped foods together and offered the common sense
advice that everyone should eat foods from each group – in moderation –
every day.
The new pyramid, on the other hand, ranked foods -- with carbohydrates
(up to 11 portions a day!) as its base and fats and oils at its “use
sparingly” top. The implication was clear: carbohydrates were “good”
foods, fats were “bad” ones. It was a very short step from there to the
idea that it was fine to eat all the safe and healthy carbohydrates you
wanted as long as you avoided fats.
At the time, plenty of people wondered how this could be true. After
all, everyone knew that if you ate more calories than you used you’d gain
weight – whether those calories came from sirloin or spaghetti. But the
idea was so attractive it was hard not to at least give it a chance.
After all, if it were true, you could make mashed potatoes with skim
milk and a bit of diet margarine – and then eat the whole bowlful. Half a
loaf of crusty French bread was fine as long as you skipped the butter.
And pasta – modestly dressed in low-fat tomato sauce -- became the
queen of the dinner table.
To make things worse, the food industry climbed on the bandwagon.
Taking all or most of the fat out of foods took most of the taste with it
but food processors soon discovered that if you replaced that fat with
plenty of sugar, things tasted good again. And with that Snackwell
cookies – and all their competitors – were born.
The results, as they say, are weight gain “epidemic” history.
======================
Reshaping the pyramid
======================
Today, the federal government is working on reshaping its pyramid – and
so are a number of other groups. A Newsweek cover story, enticingly
titled “The Perfect Diet” explored some of the alternatives, including one
new pyramid devised by scientists from the Harvard School of Public
Health. This new chart breaks up the old food groups (like meats, fruit,
dairy and grains) and ranks foods solely on whether they are healthy
sources of nutrition. Whole grains and vegetable oils rank best; red meat,
white rice, pasta, potatoes and sweets rank worst.
There is some very good science behind this new pyramid including data
from large, carefully controlled studies. At the same time, it’s hard
to accept the idea that rice and pasta are bad for you when the Asian
and Mediterranean diets have consistently proven to be exceptionally
healthy.
Just to make things even more confusing there’s no shortage of other
diet plans designed by experts.
* The Atkins diet scraps carbohydrates in favor of fats and protein.
* The Zone diet, favored my many athletes, includes all kinds of foods
but requires very specific percentages of fat, carbohydrate and
protein.
* The Ornish diet, which is largely vegetarian, allows only 10% of
calories from fat.
All claim to help you lose weight and gain energy, good health and
protection from various diseases. And they do – for some people some of the
time.
==========================
Time to think for yourself
==========================
You wouldn’t buy a car that was perfect for cross-country trips if you
lived and drove in Chicago. And you wouldn’t buy a makeup that was
perfect for Nordic blondes if your coloring was Mediterranean. So why put
your faith in any diet plan that doesn’t respect who you are and how
you live?
To lose weight – and keep it off – you’re going to need to think for
yourself, gather the information you need, consult experts if necessary
and take a realistic approach. The following steps are a good start.
1. Consider your health. If you have problems like diabetes, high blood
pressure or heart disease talk to your doctor before you begin any
diet.
2. Consider your ancestors. Did your grandmother have diabetes? Did
your aunt fall and break her hip? Does your dad have a heart condition?
Having a relative with a particular condition doesn’t mean you are sure
to have the same problem but it does mean you should try to eat in ways
that help prevent that problem. You can learn more about the
relationship between various conditions and diet from your doctor or a
nutritionist. You can also find information at the library or on line.
3. Consider WHY you eat. If you’re doing it to calm down or cheer up
you may need to make some stress-reducing changes in your life before you
can lose weight successfully. A talk with your doctor or a counselor
might make a real difference.
4. Consider family demands. If you leave work, pick up your children at
the sitter, stop at the market and arrive home at six with two cranky,
hungry kids, a meal that requires an hour of preparation and cooking is
a really bad idea. So is a meal that neither child will touch.
5. Consider your lifestyle. If your job and commute take nine or ten
hours a day and you also have to clean house, tend the yard, run the
errands and spend time with your spouse and kids, you‘re probably not going
to get much out of a health club membership.
6. Consider your tastes. A diet that forbids all the foods you like or
insists on foods you can’t stand might work for a week or two but
certainly isn’t going to become a lifelong way of eating. Yes, you may have
to cut down on some foods you enjoy – even save them for very special
occasions. But eating is too important a part of life to turn it into an
unpleasant experience.
7. Consider your budget. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be expensive,
especially in winter. So, unfortunately, can fish. Look for ways to
save money on other food purchases – for example by not buying snack
foods, soda, sweets and other low-nutrition foods. And do try using canned
and frozen fruit and vegetables in your recipes. They are actually often
higher in nutrients than fresh and are usually substantially less
expensive.
=======================
Find what works for you
=======================
Once you’ve thought all those issues through, it’s time to come up with
realistic weight loss strategies that will actually work for you.
If your budget allows, a nutritionist can be a real help in doing this
because he or she can design meals that will appeal to you (and your
family), provide good nutrition, and keep you from being hungry all the
time. If you’re designing a diet program on your own, be prepared to try
new strategies, evaluate them, then keep what works and scrap the rest.
Strategies you might try include:
* Simply not buying low-nutrition foods like cookies and candy. If they
aren’t in the house, you probably won’t get up and drive to the store
to get them when you’re in the mood for a diet-busting sweet. (If you
want to keep some sweets for the children, choose ones you don’t like.)
* Make it a point to snatch small bits of exercise during the day. Take
the stairs, offer to be the one who walks to the corner store for
lunch. Park as far away from the entrance as possible.
* If you’re dining out and the portions are huge, set half aside to
take home – then focus on how nice it’s going to be not to have to cook
dinner tomorrow.
* Be creative. You’ll probably come up with some entirely new
strategies tailored especially for you.
Finally, be patient with yourself. If something doesn’t work consider
it a learning experience rather than a failure. And remember that
finding a way of eating that helps you lose weight and keep it off is worth
however much time and effort it takes
are overweight, based on their body mass index. In 1995 the figure was
71%. In 1990 it was 64% and in 1983, just 58%.
That’s a remarkable rise in so short a time and experts agree it
constitutes an “epidemic” of overweight. What they don’t agree on is why
Americans are expanding so much and so fast.
* Lack of exercise. Virtually everyone agrees that Americans don’t move
as much or as fast as they should. But there’s been concern about our
sedentary lifestyle since at least the 50s so it’s hard to see our couch
potato status as causing the sudden rise in overweight.
* Tasty, inexpensive fast food meals. There has already been one
lawsuit based on the idea that a fast food outlet caused two young people to
become overweight,
* Increasingly generous portion sizes both in restaurants and at home.
* A general failure on the part of Americans to do the right thing.
This view was summed up nicely by Dr. Louis Aronne of Cornell University’s
Weill Medical College who told CNN “If Americans were to make the
effort to manage their weight using a variety of options, including better
nutrition, more exercise, approved medications or even surgical
approaches, we would be rewarded with significantly better health.”
====================
Too good to be true
====================
The top suspect in many peoples’ opinion is the United States
Department of Agriculture’s food pyramid. Published in 1992, it replaced earlier
charts that simply grouped foods together and offered the common sense
advice that everyone should eat foods from each group – in moderation –
every day.
The new pyramid, on the other hand, ranked foods -- with carbohydrates
(up to 11 portions a day!) as its base and fats and oils at its “use
sparingly” top. The implication was clear: carbohydrates were “good”
foods, fats were “bad” ones. It was a very short step from there to the
idea that it was fine to eat all the safe and healthy carbohydrates you
wanted as long as you avoided fats.
At the time, plenty of people wondered how this could be true. After
all, everyone knew that if you ate more calories than you used you’d gain
weight – whether those calories came from sirloin or spaghetti. But the
idea was so attractive it was hard not to at least give it a chance.
After all, if it were true, you could make mashed potatoes with skim
milk and a bit of diet margarine – and then eat the whole bowlful. Half a
loaf of crusty French bread was fine as long as you skipped the butter.
And pasta – modestly dressed in low-fat tomato sauce -- became the
queen of the dinner table.
To make things worse, the food industry climbed on the bandwagon.
Taking all or most of the fat out of foods took most of the taste with it
but food processors soon discovered that if you replaced that fat with
plenty of sugar, things tasted good again. And with that Snackwell
cookies – and all their competitors – were born.
The results, as they say, are weight gain “epidemic” history.
======================
Reshaping the pyramid
======================
Today, the federal government is working on reshaping its pyramid – and
so are a number of other groups. A Newsweek cover story, enticingly
titled “The Perfect Diet” explored some of the alternatives, including one
new pyramid devised by scientists from the Harvard School of Public
Health. This new chart breaks up the old food groups (like meats, fruit,
dairy and grains) and ranks foods solely on whether they are healthy
sources of nutrition. Whole grains and vegetable oils rank best; red meat,
white rice, pasta, potatoes and sweets rank worst.
There is some very good science behind this new pyramid including data
from large, carefully controlled studies. At the same time, it’s hard
to accept the idea that rice and pasta are bad for you when the Asian
and Mediterranean diets have consistently proven to be exceptionally
healthy.
Just to make things even more confusing there’s no shortage of other
diet plans designed by experts.
* The Atkins diet scraps carbohydrates in favor of fats and protein.
* The Zone diet, favored my many athletes, includes all kinds of foods
but requires very specific percentages of fat, carbohydrate and
protein.
* The Ornish diet, which is largely vegetarian, allows only 10% of
calories from fat.
All claim to help you lose weight and gain energy, good health and
protection from various diseases. And they do – for some people some of the
time.
==========================
Time to think for yourself
==========================
You wouldn’t buy a car that was perfect for cross-country trips if you
lived and drove in Chicago. And you wouldn’t buy a makeup that was
perfect for Nordic blondes if your coloring was Mediterranean. So why put
your faith in any diet plan that doesn’t respect who you are and how
you live?
To lose weight – and keep it off – you’re going to need to think for
yourself, gather the information you need, consult experts if necessary
and take a realistic approach. The following steps are a good start.
1. Consider your health. If you have problems like diabetes, high blood
pressure or heart disease talk to your doctor before you begin any
diet.
2. Consider your ancestors. Did your grandmother have diabetes? Did
your aunt fall and break her hip? Does your dad have a heart condition?
Having a relative with a particular condition doesn’t mean you are sure
to have the same problem but it does mean you should try to eat in ways
that help prevent that problem. You can learn more about the
relationship between various conditions and diet from your doctor or a
nutritionist. You can also find information at the library or on line.
3. Consider WHY you eat. If you’re doing it to calm down or cheer up
you may need to make some stress-reducing changes in your life before you
can lose weight successfully. A talk with your doctor or a counselor
might make a real difference.
4. Consider family demands. If you leave work, pick up your children at
the sitter, stop at the market and arrive home at six with two cranky,
hungry kids, a meal that requires an hour of preparation and cooking is
a really bad idea. So is a meal that neither child will touch.
5. Consider your lifestyle. If your job and commute take nine or ten
hours a day and you also have to clean house, tend the yard, run the
errands and spend time with your spouse and kids, you‘re probably not going
to get much out of a health club membership.
6. Consider your tastes. A diet that forbids all the foods you like or
insists on foods you can’t stand might work for a week or two but
certainly isn’t going to become a lifelong way of eating. Yes, you may have
to cut down on some foods you enjoy – even save them for very special
occasions. But eating is too important a part of life to turn it into an
unpleasant experience.
7. Consider your budget. Fresh fruits and vegetables can be expensive,
especially in winter. So, unfortunately, can fish. Look for ways to
save money on other food purchases – for example by not buying snack
foods, soda, sweets and other low-nutrition foods. And do try using canned
and frozen fruit and vegetables in your recipes. They are actually often
higher in nutrients than fresh and are usually substantially less
expensive.
=======================
Find what works for you
=======================
Once you’ve thought all those issues through, it’s time to come up with
realistic weight loss strategies that will actually work for you.
If your budget allows, a nutritionist can be a real help in doing this
because he or she can design meals that will appeal to you (and your
family), provide good nutrition, and keep you from being hungry all the
time. If you’re designing a diet program on your own, be prepared to try
new strategies, evaluate them, then keep what works and scrap the rest.
Strategies you might try include:
* Simply not buying low-nutrition foods like cookies and candy. If they
aren’t in the house, you probably won’t get up and drive to the store
to get them when you’re in the mood for a diet-busting sweet. (If you
want to keep some sweets for the children, choose ones you don’t like.)
* Make it a point to snatch small bits of exercise during the day. Take
the stairs, offer to be the one who walks to the corner store for
lunch. Park as far away from the entrance as possible.
* If you’re dining out and the portions are huge, set half aside to
take home – then focus on how nice it’s going to be not to have to cook
dinner tomorrow.
* Be creative. You’ll probably come up with some entirely new
strategies tailored especially for you.
Finally, be patient with yourself. If something doesn’t work consider
it a learning experience rather than a failure. And remember that
finding a way of eating that helps you lose weight and keep it off is worth
however much time and effort it takes
