On Fitness

Last week's issue of Us Weekly (yes, I subscribe) reported that Mariah Carey dropped 20 pounds by following a diet prescribed by her trainer/nutritionist. One key, the magazine said: a ban on eating carbohydrates and protein in the same meal, on the theory that because these nutrients are absorbed differently in the gut, eating them separately is more efficient and promotes greater weight loss than eating a more balanced meal.

I thought that Mariah probably lost the pounds because her diet (which actually looked pretty good—lots of fruit, veggies, lean protein, and good fats) provided only about 1,000 to 1,500 calories a day, not because the carbs and protein were allowed to schuss through the digestive tract without the benefit of each other's company. But I called nutritionists to find out if there was anything to the idea of separating nutrients by meal (which is actually an old one; William Howard Hay popularized the concept in the U.S. in the early 20th century).

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A new poll published by Vegetarian Times finds that 3.2 percent of American adults say they're vegetarians. That's slightly up from a 2006 poll, when the number was 2.3 percent. (Both polls were conducted by Harris but on behalf of different organizations). The new poll also finds that about 10 percent of U.S. adults say they follow a "vegetarian inclined" diet. Those folks are also called flexitarians; they mostly eat veggies and plant protein but allow a little meat to cross their plates now and then. (Here's more info on flexitarian eating.)

People who avoid meat largely or in part because of concerns about animal welfare are probably not flexitarians, since that principle is pretty absolutist (thou shalt not kill and all that). But if you're primarily concerned about your own health, being a flexitarian is a great option; research has shown that nutrition is not an all-or-nothing proposition. The study out this week about the DASH diet shows that the closer you stick to an eating pattern that emphasizes fruits, veggies, whole grains, low-fat dairy, and nuts and legumes and goes lighter on red and processed meat, sweetened drinks, and sodium, the better off you are. Yes, the 20 percent of study participants who stuck most closely to the DASH diet saw the most benefits, but those in the 40th to 80th percentiles also saw their risk of heart disease drop. So you can have your occasional burger and your health, too.

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Ask any nutritionist for some tips on a healthful diet, and the first or second thing out of her mouth will be "Eat more fruits and vegetables." Beverage manufacturers know that to consumers, fruit connotes health, which is why there are shelves and shelves of fruity drinks in your grocery store, deli, and even gym. But as Consumer Reports writes in its May issue, the word fruit can be awfully misleading. The magazine goes through what you're likely to see on the label of fruit drinks, and some of it may be surprising: A fruit "cocktail" drink, for example, might contain as little as 5 percent juice (with the other 95 percent from water, added flavorings, and sweeteners).

The Center for Science in the Public Interest published its own guide (.pdf) to health claims on fruit juice labels earlier this year, scrutinizing terms like "light," "antioxidants," and "omega-3s." What the CSPI mentions, and what many people don't know, is that even though it contains the important nutrients that diluted fruit drinks don't have, 100 percent juice has its downsides. The most obvious: Because it contains so much sugar, it's caloric. People who are looking to maintain or lose weight should really be drinking only two 4-ounce glasses a day, says Julie Miller Jones, a professor of family, consumer, and nutritional sciences at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minn. (I'd recommend you stop right now, go to the kitchen, and get out a liquid measuring cup to see what 4 ounces looks like. It's not much at all.)

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Despite all evidence to the contrary, it seems I'm not actually addicted to Nutella. So says Debra Zellner, a psychologist at Montclair State University in New Jersey who once studied drug addiction and has now turned her attention to food cravings and taste. Zellner spoke at a conference in Washington, D.C., called "Understanding Sweetness," presented by the food think tank Oldways and dedicated to the proposition that before we can figure out how to manage our inborn preference for sweetness, we need to understand exactly what we're dealing with.

So, my nonaddiction. Research suggests we do not actually become physiologically reliant on sweet things, Zellner explained. Humans certainly have an inherent preference for the taste of sweet: Newborns, for example, coo and get all smiley when they sample it, and they look decidedly less happy when presented with sour and bitter tastes. And women in particular tend to crave sweets, while men crave savory things. Nevertheless, urges to eat a specific food also have a cultural dimension. Take chocolate, the sweet more Americans say they're "addicted" to than any other. In Spain, the idea that women have a jones for chocolate before their periods is a foreign idea. Here, it's conventional wisdom.

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