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Avoid These 5 Breakfast Mistakes
Tweet Share on Facebook March 14, 2013 CommentMany of my patients admit to skipping breakfast with this excuse: Whenever they eat in the mornings, they wind up feeling much hungrier than if they hadn't eaten at all. Sound familiar? My nutrition intuition tells me that they're not feeling hungry because they ate breakfast, but rather, because they ate the wrong breakfast. In my years working with patients, I've found that for some people with good intentions, there seems to be a disconnect with what they consider a healthy breakfast.
Here are the most common breakfast mistakes I've seen:
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The Inconvenient Truth of Healthy Living
Tweet Share on Facebook March 13, 2013 CommentOnce upon a time, not so long ago, people ate out for a reason. Maybe it was in celebration of an anniversary, a birthday or a promotion. Maybe it was out of necessity to seal the deal with an important prospective client. Or maybe it was the understandable consequence of travel. But one thing's for sure—we didn't used to eat out simply because we could. Eating out was special.
Growing up in the 1970s, meals out were exceedingly rare for my family. Aside from our every-other-year family vacations, I'd bet we only ate out once every few months or so—and almost always to mark an occasion. I don't think we were atypical in how we spent money on food back then; as a society, the 1970s saw roughly 30 percent of our food dollars spent on food prepared outside of the home. Today we're near 50 percent.
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How to Breast-feed Twins
Tweet Share on Facebook March 12, 2013 CommentPeople assume a lot about you when you're a parent of twins. For example, they assume you used fertility drugs or in vitro fertilization (IVF) to conceive. Or that you delivered via C-section. And of course, that you're formula-feeding your babies. After all—it's impossible to breast-feed twins … isn't it?
In fact, it is not. While they may not represent the majority, plenty of twin moms do indeed breast-feed. I count myself among this group of self-described stubborn, determined, and persistent women who managed to exclusively breast-feed both their babies until weaning to cow's milk. God gave us two breasts and two babies, after all; the math works out quite elegantly.
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Is New York's 'Soda Ban' a Smart Idea?
Tweet Share on Facebook March 11, 2013 CommentEditor's note: A state judge has halted the ban on large sugary sodas, calling it arbitrary.
As of tomorrow, March 12, your cup may no longer runneth over. New York City restaurants are starting to order new glassware to comply with what's being called "the Soda Ban."
Let's get something straight: This is not a soda ban. Soda machines will not dry up, and the city will still sell this sweet stuff. Rather, the ban forbids the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces in restaurants, movie theaters, and other food service establishments regulated by the city's health department. Grocery and convenience stores are not included in this regulation.
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A Snow Day the Healthy Way
Tweet Share on Facebook March 11, 2013 CommentWe were socked in with snow recently in Kansas City, so I made use of the winter storm to enjoy a healthy snow day with my kids!
The following is my diet and fitness diary on that day. I enjoyed 16 ounces of water with each meal and another 16 ounces of water throughout the day.
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Accounting for Calories
Tweet Share on Facebook March 11, 2013 CommentOne of the more titillating medical stories to make news recently is a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicating that calorie intake in the United States has come down, and obesity rates have not. What makes this titillating, of course, is that it seems to suggest some great new mystery of energy balance. But I think we can account for this finding without revisiting laws of thermodynamics. We can, and we should—because there is real potential danger in abdication. If we don't account for these calories, others will.
For example, as I was indulging recently in one of my all-too-infrequent guilty pleasures, namely cuddling with my wife and watching American Idol, I was fascinated by Coca-Cola's latest commercial. This ad, brilliantly produced and polished as ever with Coca-Cola, invites us, essentially, not to worry and just be happy with the calories Coca-Cola serves.
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6 Convenience Foods You Can Make Yourself
Tweet Share on Facebook March 11, 2013 CommentBetween meetings, it may be tempting to grab an egg sandwich from the corner deli or a bag of potato chips from the vending machine. It's easy for our busy schedules to dictate food choices, leading us to a diet of convenience. But that convenience can be costly. All that processed food will both expand your waistline and shrink your wallet. It's true: Taking shortcuts around your meals can be costly in more ways than one! Fight this submission to convenience foods, and taste the rewards of real food. Read on, and you'll see that eating real food can be convenient, affordable, and healthy.
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Why Feeling Hungry is Important
Tweet Share on Facebook March 8, 2013 Comment"Hunger" has a very negative connotation in our society. Our immediate reaction to the word is that it's a bad thing, something to be eradicated and fixed. Of course, when we're using the word "hunger" to describe the issue of food insecurity, we are indeed describing a problem. However, when there's plenty of food available to eat, hunger is actually a lovely part of the overall eating experience. To put it simply, food tastes better when you're hungry.
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Why Baked Chips are Worse Than Fried
Tweet Share on Facebook March 7, 2013 CommentIn response to the increased attention and concern for America's rising rates of obesity and diabetes, the food industry has responded by creating what they often refer to as "better-for-you" foods. These include, among other things: bags of dried fruit slices, organic bars and cookies, yogurts, smoothies, vegetable crisps, and, of course, baked, not fried, potato chips. In turn, these items have begun to replace the more traditional junk food found in our children's school vending machines.
But where traditional junk food may have had marginally more calories and a bit more salt, what it never had was a "health halo." No one ever would have confused chips and chocolate bars with healthful choices. Not so with these products, which are regularly touted as truly healthy alternatives to their higher-octane, junk-food counterparts.
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5 Ways to Practice Portion Control
Tweet Share on Facebook March 7, 2013 CommentLet's face it: Sometimes it's how much, not what, you eat that causes you to blame the dry cleaner for shrinking your clothing. So often clients come to me frustrated and puzzled about why their pounds aren't pouring off, even though they've slashed carbs and ditched fats. What they don't realize is that even healthy foods have calories. A piece of fish the size of your plate and a mountain of edamame is not going to lead to that svelte silhouette. Keeping an eye on portion sizes and eating with your stomach instead of your eyes, mouth, or wallet is a surefire way to help you get where you want to go.
