NoBellyPrize.com

Patti Regehr and Larry Magid

School is out and, if you have kids at home, routines are changing. If yours is like most families, you’re no longer having those hurried breakfasts and brown bag lunches. Instead, the kids are spending a bit more time in the house — and at friend’s houses — with nearly 24/7 access to snack foods. There is nothing intrinsically unhealthy about snacking, but too many snacks — and the wrong type of foods — can add up to some serious calories, which can result in putting on pounds and inches between now and back-to-school time.

Also, snack foods tend to be lower in nutritional value than what mom or dad serves for dinner, so even if your kids don’t overeat, they may wind up eating the wrong foods. In theory, summertime should be an active time for kids. They have plenty of time to play, run, swim and engage in sports.

But too many of today’s kids spend their summer in front of the computer or TV or being driven to relatively sedentary social events. The combination of unhealthy eating and lack of exercise is taking a toll on today’s kids and the results are far more serious than weak muscles or a few extra pounds.

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control predicts that one in three U.S. children born in the year 2000 could contract diabetes during their lifetime. Type 2 diabetes used to be called “adult onset” because it was very rare among children, but it’s now far too common and it’s generally due to childhood obesity. In 1998, about 11 percent of the nation’s 6- to 17-year-olds were overweight compared with about 5 percent in 1970.

The number of children diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has tripled in the past five years, according to research from the Irving, Texasbased VHA Health Foundation.

Diabetes isn’t the only risk. Children who are overweight are more likely to be overweight as adults and run an increased risk of heart disease and other problems. OK, enough scare tactics. Raising kids is hard enough without having me browbeat you into policing everything they eat.

I also caution you to avoid making your kids neurotic about food and health. Fitness is important, but we also don’t want to raise a generation of kids that are so “health conscious” that they fail to enjoy their childhood. It’s also important to make sure that kids — especially teenage girls — eat enough to maintain a healthy weight, which isn’t necessarily as skinny as some of the models and actresses they see on TV. Kids want to be as independent as possible and that includes what they put in their mouths. Sure, you feed them healthy meals, but they’re going to be hungry — or bored — during the day. They’re likely to reach into the refrigerator and grab whatever is handy. And it may not be your refrigerator. They may eat at a friend’s house or at a fast-food restaurant or convenience store. Unless your kids are quite young, you can’t control everything they do, but you can make it easier for your kids to get healthy snacks by keeping your refrigerator and cupboards full of the right stuff while keeping unhealthy foods out of reach. So, what foods should you have on hand?

You’ve probably already thought about fruit and vegetables but be sure you think beyond apples, carrots and celery sticks. Berries, cherries, apricots, and nectarines are also quite healthy.

At times these fruits can be a bit pricey, but they’re usually a bargain compared to the price of packaged snack foods.

In addition to sweets, kids often crave salty foods, especially in the summer. There are two issues with salty foods. One, of course, is that they’re high in sodium. The other is that snack foods that are salty also tend to be high in calories and fat

Still, for most kids, a bit of salt is OK, but consider salty snack foods that are also low in fat, such as baked or partially baked chips or low-fat pretzels.

Nuts are high in calories, but they’re very filling and especially appealing with sweet (yet sugar free) dried fruit. If your kids tend to munch like there’s no tomorrow, consider packaging up an ounce of so of nuts with about an ounce of fruit into plastic bags so they’re less likely to consume too much of this health, but relatively high calorie treat.

Popcorn can be another healthy, though sometimes salty, treat. If you have an air popper, you can make fat-free popcorn but even if you do pop it in oil it’s still relatively low in calories because popcorn is mostly air. Read the labels on microwave popcorn. Some brands are high in hydrogenated fat, which is almost as bad for you as saturated fat.

Granola bars are sometimes high in sugar and fat, but they’re also high in fiber, which is certainly better than most candy bars. The same is true with fruit bars such as Fig Newtons.

Another option is frozen fruit bars. Frozen treats tend to satiate and take a long time to consume and you can get bars that are sweetened with fruit juice rather than sugar. Another trick is to put some seedless grapes in the freezer and feed them to the kids like candy. Also consider making your own shakes in the blender with frozen fruit, low fat milk or yogurt and honey, if needed.

Other healthy snack ideas include breadsticks with hummus, tortilla chips with bean dip, cereal in a bag, toasted whole-wheat breads with peanut or almond butter and fruit, gingersnaps dipped in applesauce and frozen bananas.

My late mother may have been right.  Long before it was fashionable and long before companies started doctoring it with sugar and fruit flavors, mom fed us yogurt. She wasn’t exactly sure why it was good for us but she insisted that it was. I figured she had to be right because – based on my tastes at the time – it tasted horrible.  Now I’ve come to like the taste of plain yogurt. In fact, I often use it instead of milk as a topping for cereal

Mom was a big yogurt proponent because of the active cultures. Yogurt is full of “friendly” bacteria that are associated with all sorts of heath benefits including improving digestion, fighting yeast infections, colon cancer, ulcers and strengthening the immune system. Fortunately, my family members haven’t had to use antibiotics very often but, when we do, my wife Patti (who’s also smart like my mother) makes sure that we get plenty of yogurt to counteract the anti-bacterial carpet bombing effect of the drug.

Yogurt is also high in protein, calcium, riboflavin and vitamin B 12 but unlike most other milk products, it doesn’t necessarily aggravate people who are lactose intolerant. That’s because the live yogurt cultures help brake down the lactose.

Non-fat plain yogurt is relatively low in calories (130 per eight ounce serving) and, of course, virtually devoid of fat. But be careful.  Not all commercial are low in calories.  I love Nancy’s whole milk Yogurt, but a cup has 180 calories and 16 grams of fat. A typical 8 ounce serving of fruit flavored non-fat yogurt has 150 calories. So-called “low fat” fruit flavored yogurt typically has 228 calories along with 3 grams of fat.

Dannon makes all types of yogurts but watch out for its “la crème mousse” variety. The numbers for a a single “serving” don’t sound all that bad: 120 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat and 15 grams of carbohydrates.  But they define a serving as 2.6 ounces.  To get the real picture you have to multiply those numbers by 3.08.  Based on a 2000 calorie diet, an 8 ounce serving would have be 18% of your total calories, 24% of your daily fat allowance, 55% of your daily saturated fat, and 15% of your daily carbs. If you’re trying to lose weight on a 1,200 calorie diet, a single serving out take up nearly a third of your day’s calories.

But here’ the good news about weight loss and yogurt.  A recent study conducted found that people who ate a certain type of yogurt “lost significantly more weight compared to others who simply reduced calories.”  That certain type was “Yoplait Light.” There’s nothing in Yoplait’s press release that says they sponsored the study, but I have my suspicions.  Still, the study was conducted by a credible researcher, Michael B. Zemel, Ph.D., professor of medicine and

Director of the Nutrition Institute at the University of Tennessee.

The yogurt eaters, according to the study, “lost 22 percent more weight, 61 percent more body fat and 81 percent more trunkal (stomach) fat during the 12-week study.”

Dr Zemel believes that the calcium in yogurt could be a major factor in the results. The people who consumed yogurt, “consumed about 1,100 milligrams of calcium each day” compared to the control group which consumed 500 milligrams of calcium which is typical of the American diet. Both groups consumed about 500 calories less than they would usually eat.

“Not only did yogurt help the study participants lose more weight–the average weight loss was 13 pounds–they were about twice as effective at maintaining lean muscle mass,” Zemel said. “This is a critical issue when dieting — you want to lose fat, not muscle. Muscle helps burn calories, but it is often compromised during weight loss.”

Zemel’s previous studies have found “as calcium intake goes up, weight and body fat go down.”  He argues that a diet low in calcium “appears to stimulate the production of fat-producing enzymes and decreases the activity of enzymes that break down fat.”

My mother was one pretty smart lady.

Americans spend billions of dollars a year on weight loss programs and, after years of pain staking research, I figured out why many of them actually help you lose weight but often fail to help you keep it off.  It has to do with structure and an external authority figure.

OK, I haven’t really done any formal “research” but I have successfully lost weight using structured diet programs even though, in theory, I could have done just as well on my own.

I don’t care what program you join: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, the Diet Center, Overeaters Anonymous, Atkins or even the ice cream diet (yes, someone actually did come up with that one).

The reason that these diets help you lose weight is because they require you to follow rules set down by an external authority figure.  That could be the person who weighs you in each week at the Weight Watchers meeting or a dietician who sits down with you to review how you’re doing or the author of a book you’re following.  It almost doesn’t matter who it is, as long as you are willing to impart to them a certain amount of authority or influence.

I know this from experience.  I can gain weight all by myself but it’s very hard for me to lose weight if I’m not in some type of program.  I can wake up in the morning and vow that “today I’m going to eat sensibly” but – by the time I go to sleep that night – I’ve eaten too much.  And some point in the process I’ll stop thinking about weight all together which is when I shoot way up.  It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to break on your own, though it’s clearly not impossible.

In my case, any structure is better than no structure at all.  Programs that require me to meet with some type of counselor work best for me because I have a person to whom I’m accountable.  I have, however, lost weight by strictly following recommendations from a book.   The key is following those regulations.

Pam Webster, a Palo Alto resident who has battled with weight control was about to join Weight Watchers when I ran into her recently at the Palo Alto Cafe. “I need a formal arrangement to maintain discipline,” she confessed. “I would do well if I went to a nutritionist but I’m not about to go poking around looking for one.”  Weight Watchers is a “closed system” which provides you with everything you need to eat properly.

While weight loss programs do provide you with lots of good information, many people who are on diets already know what’s good for them.  There are no longer any local Diet Center offices in this area but there used to be one in Redwood City where I paid a monthly fee for a diet, a daily weigh-in and daily reinforcement.  The Diet Center worked so well for me that I wound up using it several times.  I used it during the 1970s to lose 40 pounds and I went back twice during the eighties and once in the early 90s. After awhile I knew almost as much about the Diet Center program as my counselor but she was still very helpful because I needed an ear and an authority to help me stay on track.

Taking Off Pounds Sensibly or “TOPS” (www.tops.org) is a non-profit organization that provides support systems in communities across the country with weekly meetings in Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Mateo, San Bruno, Sunnyvale and other bay area communities (for meeting locations and times click on chapter locater at www.tops.org).  The fees are extremely reasonable – between $5 and $8 per month plus $20 a year for the TOPS magazine.  Local coordinator June Hodsell says that the key to TOPS is “accountability.”  Ms. Hodsell advises TOPS members to “do a journal every week and that you put down exactly what you do eat. Lots of times we’re not even aware.”

TOPS, according to Ms. Hodsell, works because the members form a support community.  Members help each others during the meetings and, sometimes, between meetings. Members are weighed in at each meeting but the feedback is always supportive, even if someone gains a pound or two during the week. “You don’t know what they’ve gone through but we’re always supportive.”  Unlike most diet programs TOPS doesn’t prescribe what you should or shouldn’t eat as long as its “sensible.” Members are encouraged to seek medical and nutritional advice.

After you’ve lost the weight, you can join KOPS  – “Keeping Weight Off Sensibly” which is kind of the honor society for successful TOPS members. This gives people a lifelong support system for keeping their weight under control.

Here’s a newsflash for you.  A study conducted at the University of North Carolina concludes that we eat more on weekends than we do during the week.

The study, published in the journal Obesity Research found that, on average, Americans consume 82 extra calories a day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday than they do during weekdays (for eating purposes, Friday is considered a weekend day).  People aged between 19 and 50 consume an average of 117 extra calories.

It’s easy to understand why.  If fact, I’m surprised that the average is so low. A single 12 ounce glass of beer – something a lot of us are likely to guzzle on weekends – accounts for 150 calories.  Add all those high-fat foods that are often served at weekend events and it’s easy to see how some of us might far exceed the national average.

117 extra calories a day may not sound like much but, all things being equal, it can add 5 pounds a year.  Multiply that by a few years and you can see why weekend eating contributes towards obesity.

In addition to more total calories, the researches found an increase in calories from alcohol and fat with a decrease in energy from carbohydrates.  In other words, booze and snack foods.

The researches did not study whether people tend to be more active on the weekends.  A 20 minute walk or mowing the lawn could burn off a day’s worth of those extra calories.

The study also pointed out that the fall season is also a danger zone when it comes to eating but other research suggests that holiday season weight gain might no be quite as much as some people had suspected.

There is the common belief that Americans put on several pounds between Thanksgiving and New Years but a study conducted by  the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) found that, on average, we put on about a pound during this holiday period.  That may not sound like much but, as we all know, it’s a lot easier to gain a pound than it is to lose one which is exactly what the study concluded. “When 165 of the study volunteers were weighed a year after the study began, they had not lost the extra weight gained during the holidays, and ended the year a pound and a half heavier (1.4 lb) than they were the year before,”  according to the study’s author, Dr. Jack A. Yanovski.  Obese subjects, by the way, were far more likely to gain five or more pounds.

Exercise can make a difference.  “Study volunteers reporting more physical activity had less holiday weight gain,” according to Dr. Yanovski who concluded that “increasing physical activity may be an effective method for preventing weight gain during this high-risk time.”

As I’ve said in many columns, keeping your weight under control is simply a matter of balancing intake and exercise.  While taking a 20 minute walk won’t make up for an extra helping of pie, regular exercise can definitely help you keep your weigh under control.

Nutritional Website

As someone who likes to know the nutritional content of what I eat, I’m always on the lookout for useful websites with nutritional information.  When I find one, I add it to the “Calculators and Database” section of my web site, www.NoBellyPrize.com.

Just about everyone I know who exercises regularly has been sidelined for a time because of an injury.  Some injuries result from dumb luck accidents but others can be prevented by proper warm ups, the right use of equipment and a bit of caution.

Some injuries result from exercising muscles that have long been dormant while others – repetitive stress injuries – are just the opposite.  Those who’ve been sedentary for a long period of time are especially vulnerable to sports injuries or even worse. If you haven’t exercised for quite awhile, it makes sense to get a physical before you start anything strenuous.  I don’t want to discourage anyone from starting out, but it is important to remember that there are conditions that can make exercise dangerous, especially if you start out too quickly.

But even if you get a clean bill of health, be careful not to start out with too strenuous a program.  When I got back on my bicycle a couple of years ago, I started with leisurely riding in flat areas before graduating to the hills.

The expression “walk before you run” can be taken literally.  A program of running or jogging can good for you but if you haven’t run for awhile you might be better off starting with a brisk walk before transitioning to running.

Starting slowly is especially important for weight training. When I started a weight training program earlier in the year, I started with bars that were completely devoid of weights, just to work on my form and get a feel for the equipment.  Over time, my trainer gradually added weight but never shocked me with too much of a jump.

Whatever your exercise program, think of it as a marathon, not a sprint. Your goal isn’t to see how fast and far you can run, walk or swim or how much weight you can lift but to gradually build up your strength and endurance. It takes awhile and any attempt to short circuit the process could easily lead to injury, discouragement or even the onset of an illness.

Warming up is very important.  A good warm-up routine not only stretches muscles and tendons but helps to increase circulation and body temperature.

If you are overdoing it, consider making some changes, at least temporarily. Some runners and cyclists turn to working out in a pool when they feel that their land-based activities are starting to have an ill effect. Ice after exercise, especially if you’re sore, can also help.

Varying your exercise routines can also help prevent injuries. By using different sets of muscles, you can avoid repetitive stress injuries.  I know first hand, or should I say first foot. Too much bike riding caused me pain in my feet.  The pain didn’t keep me from walking but it did require me to cut down on the intensity of my bike rides.

Speaking of long rides, endurance sports are more likely to cause cramping which can sometimes result from a lack of hydration. Drinking an adequate amount of fluids is essential, especially if exercise in hot weather.

If you’re doing aerobic exercises, it’s important to raise your heartbeat but not to overstress the heart.  There are all sorts of theories as to the heart rate to maintain during exercise but the most common formula for “maximum heart rate” is 220 minus your age while your target heart rate should be between 65% and 85% of your maximum.  You can find some heart rate calculators at www.nobellyprize.com.

Having the right equipment can also help. I once fell because the soles of my shoes were worn down and I didn’t even realize it. Make sure that your running or walking shoes are in good shape. My daughter Katherine, who is a college cross country runner, advises changing running shoes every 300 to 500 miles. Check the tires and breaks on your bicycle. Be sure that any strength training equipment you use is properly configured.  Wear appropriate protective gear which, depending on your activity, might include knee pads, helmets, gloves and other equipment.

Perhaps the most important advice is to listen to your body.  It will tell you if you are working too hard or need more rest.  But don’t just listen to the part that’s telling you you’re exercising too much.  You body also has its ways of telling you that you’re being a bit too sedentary.

Atkins may have been right all along.  A number of recent studies have suggested that a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet may be more effective at taking off weight than a high-carb diet.

Some argue that successful low carb/high fat diets are also low calorie diets because people on these diets – while enjoying lots of fatty foods – are actually eating less.  There’s some truth to that.  If you eliminate most high carbohydrate foods from your diet, you are more likely to become bored with what you are allowed to eat and might wind up eating less of it.  But a recent study at the Harvard School of Public Health seems to suggest that low carb diets actually do take off more weight, even when controlling for caloric intake.

Penelope Greene, a nutritionist at the Harvard School for Public Health, has conducted a study, albeit with a small sample; found that a group of dieters who consumed 1800 calories (for women) and 2100 calories (for men) lost the same amount of weight as the women who consumed 1500 and the men who consumed 1800 calories.  In other words, staying away from carbohydrates seems to have same effect as cutting out an additional 300 calories a day.

The results of this study fly in the face of the widely held assumption that calories are the only factor when it comes to loosing weight and gives credence to the theories of the late Dr. Robert Atkins and others who advocate counting carbohydrates rather than calories.

My own experience bears this out as well.  I don’t make any scientific claims nor do I necessarily believe that others will have the same results, but of my many attempts to loose weight, cutting down on carbohydrates has always yielded more success than trying to cut out calories from fat.

I always assumed it was because high protein and higher fat meals were more satiating then meals high in carbohydrates and that I probably was eating fewer calories along with fewer carbs, but Greene’s study suggests that there may be another factor. Perhaps carbs do actually contribute to weight gain, independent of the calorie issue.

There is also the possibility that people on the low carb/higher fat group in the study may have been more physically active than the other group or more compliant with their diet.  This study, however, was more controlled than many diet studies because participants eat food given to them by the researchers rather than prepare their own food or eat in restaurants.  By requiring the participants to other eat study food is the bet method known to avoid non-compliance with the research study’s eating regiment.

The main criticism of the Atkins diet is not only that it’s high in fat, but also high in saturated fat and cholesterol.  There are plenty of medical experts who agree that fat, in itself, isn’t the culprit as long as you cut back on saturated fat and trans-fat.  Fat from nuts, seeds and vegetables (such as avocado) has been shown in some studies to actually help lower cholesterol when used moderately during a weight control program.

Do you have kids who are overweight? If so, you’re not alone.  One in 10 American children are obese – about a third are overweight.  Fast food A study just completed at Boston’s Children’s Hospital found that kids who are already obese not only eat more at the fast food restaurant but when they get home as well.  The researchers studied 28 obsese children and 26 that were normal size.  Both groups were invited to eat as much as they want at a fast food restaurant.  They all started out with a large meal and they all ate it but the obese children ate more – 67% of their daily allotment of calories vs. 57% for the leaner kids.  The real problem, however, happened later in the day.  Once they got home, the obese kids ate, on average, 400 more calories than their leaner counterparts.

The lesson here, according to the researchers, is that overweight kids are less likely to compensate for a large meal than thinner kids. In other words, the normal kids cut back on their later eating because they were full while the obese kids kept on eating despite the large meal earlier in the day.

This research has implications for parents, trying to help their overweight kids and, even though it didn’t study adults, I think the findings might apply to grownups as well.  I know that I’m capable of eating a very large breakfast, followed by a large lunch, in between meal snacks and then a large dinner.  My son, who is thin, seems to have a better “thermostat” when it comes to cutting back later in the day after a large meal.

The lesson – put some thought into how you’re eating and don’t let appetite alone control what you eat.