Listen To Your iTouch And Podcasts And Lose Weight

If a recent article on Yahoo! Health is any indication then YES – listening to podcasts can help you lose weight.  But not just any old podcast – banging your head to Metallica, or Slayer just won’t do.  Rather the podcast needs to offer engaging and sound diet and exercise advice that follows behavioral theory.

In the study, overweight and obese men and women listening to behavior-therapy based weight-loss podcasts for 12 weeks lost more than 6 pounds (2.9 kilograms) on average, Turner-McGrievy and colleagues report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

In contrast…

By contrast, a similar “control” group of 7 men and 29 women, just under 40 years old on average, who listened to weight-loss and positive thinking advice offered in a generally available podcast, lost less than one pound (0.3 kilograms) on average.

Unfortunately the story doesn’t list what podcasts were made available to the control group.

Luckily the article is available for FREE – you do need to register to view it though.  URL is http://www.ajpm-online.net/issues/contents?issue_key=S0749-3797(09)X0009-7 and the link to the article is available here: http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/S0749-3797(09)00419-X/fulltext.

Source: http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/us_podcast_weight.html

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What Exactly Are Light Foods?

Anyone that has gone on any type of diet or lifestyle change can attest to the confusion when it comes to labelling on packaging.  Words such as light, or lite or low-fat, no-fat, low sodium, no sodium etc., are thrown around like wet noodles.  Unfortunately when you start reading the ingredients you may see fat or sodium or a myriad of other ingredients listed.  SO what gives?  The package says low-fat or no-fat but there is fat in the package.  Mislabel?  Misleading?  None of the above.

In the US the FTC handles package labelling and the FDA defines the meanings of the various terms and how they can be applied, so what is posted here is based on information referenced from the FTC site.  I have provided links for you to follow.

First up – what does LIGHT mean when it comes to food packaging?

According to the FTC:

Although the term “light” is defined in FDA’s regulations as a comparative descriptor, the term also has been used to describe the food itself, much like an absolute descriptor such as “low.” As reflected in FDA’s preamble and regulations, the term also is associated chiefly with substantial reductions in fat or calories. See 58 Fed. Reg. 2351-2358. Given the unique characteristics of the term “light” as reflected in FDA’s regulations, it is unlikely that the term can be used in advertising without undue confusion unless the food meets FDA’s definitions. Accordingly, the Commission will apply FDA’s definition for “light” in determining whether advertising using the term is deceptive.

Source – http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/policystmt/ad-food.shtm

So what does the FDA have to say about the meaning of the term “light” – first off you can read their technical/scientific page on various food labelling guidelines.

In Canada visit http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/guide/ch4ae.shtml

In the UK visit http://www.food.gov.uk/foodlabelling/

Another US site http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=1&tax_subject=273

Here is a handy list that I put together based on the information found from the FDA site – E&OE:

LIGHT

Means that it contains at least 50% less fat or 50% less calories furnished by the fat.

CALORIE-FREE

Less of 0.5 grams of the total fat of the “original reference”.

% FAT-FREE

Products which are marked as ___% fat free should contain 3 o less grams of the total fat of the “original reference”.

CHOLESTEROL-FREE

Less than 2 milligrams cholesterol of the “original reference” or 2 grams or less of saturated fat of the “original reference”.

SATURATED FAT-FREE

Less than 5 grams of the “original reference” and no more than 0.5 grams of acid fats.

LOW-FAT

3 or less grams of total fat of the “original reference”

LOW-CALORIE

No more than 40 calories of the “original reference” (except sugar substitutes).

LOW-CHOLESTEROL

20 milligrams or less cholesterol and 2 grams or less saturated fat of the “original reference”.

LOW-SATURATED FAT

1 gram or less saturated fat of the “original reference” and not more than 15% less calories of saturated fat.

ORIGINAL REFERENCE

It is the product which the industry uses as basis for the comparison.

Belly Fat Linked To Depression

As if large men or large women didn’t have enough to deal with when it comes to weight, comes this – bell fat has now been linked to depression.  Now that’s making me depressed… kidding aside, here is the story with appropriate links:

Belly fat isn’t only bad for the heart—it may be giving people the blues as well. However, moderate exercise, even a walk around the block, can help you fight back and feel better.

A study at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, published in the May issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, linked depression among middle-age women with the accumulation of visceral fat—the kind packed between internal organs at the waist. “We’ve long known that depression and heart disease are related, but until now there’s really not been an explanation as to why,” says cardiovascular epidemiologist Lynda Powell, the study’s lead author and chairwoman of Rush’s Department of Preventive Medicine. Powell says this study may help explain the link between depression and heart disease in both women and men, because visceral fat is associated with increased heart disease risk.

Powell’s team looked at the connection between depression and visceral fat in 400 women between ages 42 and 52 and found a strong correlation, particularly among overweight and obese women. Powell says that the link between belly fat and depression goes beyond feeling sad or depressed because of body image: There appears to be a chemical connection.

In another study, on mice, researchers at the University of Illinois looked at inflammation in belly fat, which has been shown to be an independent predictor for disease, to see whether exercise or diet would be more effective in reducing both the inflammation and the levels of fat. They found that moderate exercise worked just as well as a low-fat diet in reducing inflammation, if not weight. That’s important. “If you’re exercising or dieting and not losing weight, you still may be getting benefits,” says nutritional scientist Victoria Vieira, lead author of the study, which was published in the May issue of American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Exercise scientist Andrea Dunn, a spokesperson for the American College of Sports Medicine, says the two studies reinforce that exercise can improve both depression and inflammation.

“It doesn’t have to be onerous,” Powell says. “Instead of sitting down in front of a TV after dinner, get up and take a walk with your husband. Or start taking dancing lessons. Little things like that can have a profound effect.”

Your Recipes Featured Here!

Everyone loves a great recipe – we’ve just added a plugin to show YOUR recipes on our site.  We’re working on customizing the recipe plugin that we recently installed to allow YOU to add recipes yourself along with a picture of the recipe but in the meantime, if you have a recipe you’d like to share simply leave us a comment (we manually approve all comments) and we’ll post it with a link back to your site (optional).

I’ll start adding some of my own family recipes as well.

To view recipes, HOVER above RESOURCES and in the drop-down you will see RECIPES.

6 Easy Ways To Start Loosing Weight That You Can Start Right Now

Here are 6 easy ways that you can start loosing weight, right now and that require so little work that they seem too easy.

#1 – Drink two glasses of water before you start eating.  Are you really, really, really THAT hungry?  Probably not.  Have some water, you’re probably thirsty.

#2 – Eat nuts.  All kinds of nuts.  Nuts are natural appetite suppressors.  I’ve found, for me, walnuts “numb” my mouth and suppress my hunger.  I love raw cashews, and almonds also. 

#3 – Exercise every day.  Do something.  Get OFF the couch.  I walked everyday for 20-30 minutes.  I rode my bicycle for 30-60 minutes when I didn’t go out for a walk.  I lost 100lbs.  I know you can do the same.

#4 – Food journal.  Keep one.  I hated to keep a food journal, but I did.  I wasn’t too keen on it so didn’t write in it religiously but kept one – I’d note the food(s) that I ate along with my feelings and thoughts.  Yah, maybe a bit “girly” – but it helped.  On days that I ate too much and wrote in it, I would read the entry a few days later and would know why I ate too much.  The next time I felt the same way, I knew what NOT to do.  Keep a food journal.

#5 – BEFORE you go shopping, ensure you’ve eaten.  You will save money on groceries and will not buy stuff you don’t need.

#6 – Don’t eat until you are stuffed.  Save some space in your stomach, eat until you are full and you’ll only be so tired that you won’t feel like doing anything else.

Will Walking Help You Lose Weight?

Short and sweet:

Any type of sustained, and regular exercise will help you lose weight BUT that doesn’t meant that you eat 3,000 calories and expect that 20 minutes of walking will help you lose weight.  You still need to watch what you are eating.

Fact – when I lost my 100lbs all I did was walk and ride a stationary bicycle.  That’s it.  No extensive or intense physical exercise regime.

I’d walk 20-30 minutes every day at lunch time and in the evenings (if I felt like it) I would ride my stationary cycle.  Or my young son (around 1 year old at the time) would chase me around the house (or was I chasing him).

So can you lose weight by walking?  Well… the answer is up there for you to see.

Image Source: http://think.faesthetic.com/?m=200904

Steps To A Clean Body – Personal Hygiene

If you take a look at my featured posts, I’ve talked about Personal Hygiene in several posts – here is one of them: http://www.lose-weight-feel-great.com/2009/06/10/7-steps-to-personal-hygiene/.

First off these suggestions are NOT limited to adult.  Children (yes, children) should also practice personal hygiene — it’s up to parents to help them and teach them.  I can’t tell you how often I’ve stood in line at a grocery store to see kids covered in dirt or picking their noses or other parts of their body.  PARENTS – WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!  Show some responsibility and leadership and tell your kids what’s acceptable and not acceptable in public.

OK.  That aside you can teach hygiene to your kids.

Are you guilty of this:

• Kids come from the pool and their clothes are thrown in with all the others?
• They’ve gone out to play, and you decide to keep the clothes for another day.
• Gone shopping and you figure they are clean enough to be kept with all the other clothes.

Bad, bad, bad.  Kids touch everything.  Then they wipe their grimy little hands on their clothes.  I speak from experience as I have a 6-year old boy and while he’s probably a little sick of us encouraging proper hygiene it pays off: he’s hardly ever sick and he’s learned from a young age what is and is not acceptable.

Why is it WRONG to “re-use” kids clothes when they’ve come from the pool.

Answer – have you seen the floors in the pool?  Do you know whether a kid has urinated there or not?  The floors are disgusting and lets face it it’s not easy to change a kid in a pool without them having to touch the ground (or their clothes touching the ground).  Yuuck.  When we come back from swimming, the kids clothes go in the wash AND he gets another bath.

Why is it WRONG to “re-use” kids clothes when they’ve come in from outside.

Answer – it’s dirty outside.  Plain and simple.  Buy extra shorts/shirts.  Once they’re done playing, the clothes should go in the wash - no excuses. 

Why is it WRONG to “re-use” kids clothes when they’ve gone shopping.

Answer – it’s dirty outside.  Plain and simple.  If they sit in the cart – do you know who (or what) was in the cart before them?  The carts generally stay outside.  You can have all types of bugs or even birds on them.  My son is quite tall, so can’t fit into the carts anymore but that doesn’t stop him from touching everything and anything when we go shopping.  His clothes go in the wash regardless.

You may think that we’re a little overboard when it comes to cleanliness – and maybe we are but you know what, my kid rarely gets sick and when he does it’s usually something he’s caught from someone at school.  He’s got it in his head that he doesn’t want to look or smell so even at 6 takes pride in ensuring that his clothes are clean and when he goes out that he looks “smart” and “handsome”.

You don’t have to go to the extremes that perhaps my wife and I have gone to – but if you start teaching your kids at a young age the steps needed to keep a clean body it will become a habit and they will keep it with them forever.

Eating Healthy Food Could Be Bad For You???

The title of this post is an oxymoron – how can eating healthy food be bad for you?  It’s not actually the food itself that is bad for you, but the diseases it attracts.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report listing 10 foods that can cause outbreaks related to E.coli, Norovirus or Salmonella.

CSPI identified 363 outbreaks linked to iceberg lettuce, romaine, spinach, and other leafy greens, variously contaminated with E. coli, Norovirus, or Salmonella, and causing 13,568 cases of illness. Manure, contaminated irrigation water, or poor handling practices are all possible culprits in those outbreaks. The FDA does not currently require farms and processors to have written food safety plans, nor does it provide specific safety standards for even the largest growers to meet.

The foods that they identified are:

Eggs were linked 352 outbreaks and 11,163 illnesses; tuna to 268 outbreaks and 2,341 cases of illness, and oysters—despite their limited consumption—to 132 outbreaks causing 3,409 illnesses. Outbreaks involving potatoes don’t seem to make headlines, but nevertheless they are linked to 108 outbreaks and 3,659 cases of illness. Cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts, and berries round out the top 10 list. The data come from CSPI’s Outbreak Alert! Database, which includes outbreaks from 1990 to 2006, using data collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources.

When it comes to food, proper handling is essential especially when it comes to any type of meat or fish.  However it doesn’t end there – for example, reheating rice can cause food poisoning.  Here is what the UK Food Standards Agency had to say about the risks of reheating rice:

It’s true that you could get food poisoning from eating reheated rice. But it’s not actually the reheating that’s the problem – it’s the way the rice has been stored before reheating.

Uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, bacteria that can cause food poisoning. When the rice is cooked, the spores can survive. Then, if the rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores will germinate into bacteria. These bacteria will multiply and may produce toxins (poisons) that cause vomiting or diarrhoea. Reheating the rice won’t get rid of these toxins.

So, the longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that bacteria, or the toxins they produce, could stop the rice being safe to eat.

It’s best to serve rice when it has just been cooked. If that isn’t possible, cool the rice as quickly as possible (ideally within one hour) and keep it in the fridge for no more than one day until reheating.

Remember that when you reheat any food, you should always check that it’s steaming hot all the way through, and avoid reheating more than once.

Here are a few more sites relted to the safe cooking, reheating and cooling of cooked rice:

• http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/consumers/food-safety-topics/foodborne-illnesses/safe-cooling-of-cooked-rice/index.htm
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17275116

The solution is proper food handling and common sense.  When it comes to certain items, such as Tuna (or any meat/fish for that matter) you don’t want to eat it if it’s been sitting uncooled for any period of time — that’s just asking for trouble.

If you want more information on proper safe food handling procedure visit this site – http://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/Safe_Food_Handling_Fact_Sheets/index.asp and you can download and read several fact sheets.

Here is to your health!

Mohamed

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