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 NEW! DNI BROCHURES ONLINE
Download the Lowdown on
Diabetes, Heart Disease, Weight Loss & More
You
may have seen the glossy DNI Health & Wellness Series while
grocery shopping or waiting for a doctor's appointment. Now you can
access, download and print the first six of our brochures in both
English and Spanish.
Each
DNN will spotlight a different brochure from the series: Weight
Loss, Heart Healthy, Diabetes, Healthy Kids, Carb Confusion, Women's
Health and Longevity. Our first -- Weight Loss -- offers 10 easy
steps for slimming down, answers to common diet questions, and a bit
of inspiration for tackling those New Year's Resolutions. Next
issue: Heart Health, just in time for Valentine's Day.
ALCOHOLISM/OVEREATING LINK?
Same Brain Chemical
Could Cause Booze/Food Abuse
Researchers at
Princeton and Rockefeller Universities may have discovered a common neuropeptide linked to both alcoholism and
overeating. Previous studies have linked a brain chemical called
galanin to increased appetite. But in a new animal study published
in the December issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental
Research, the same chemical was found to trigger excessive
alcohol consumption, leading scientists to speculate that galanin
may play a role in both compulsive disorders.
In the study,
galanin-hyped rats chose drinking over eating -- despite the
compound's proven effects on appetite. Similar patterns are observed
among human alcoholics who eat less regularly the more regularly
they drink. Another parallel: Animal subjects would forgo sleep in
favor of more alcohol, reflecting patterns of sleep disturbance
found among human alcoholics.
Both alcoholics and chronic
overeaters often complain of a feeling of helplessness when caught
in the grip of addictive behavior -- as if there's "no off-switch"
in their consumption of either food or booze. Co-researcher Sarah
Leibowitz suggests that alcohol and fatty foods in particular can
lead to "nonhomeostatic" behavior in certain susceptible
individuals, where they keep on consuming beyond the point of
satiation or even comfort.
While more research is merited,
the study's preliminary findings are encouraging in that some day
they may lead to more effective treatments for alcohol and food
addictions. Meanwhile, the link between the two compulsive disorders
may suggest that the same kind of programs, which have helped
alcoholics achieve sobriety, may also allow overeaters to tap into
their own higher power to surmount their problems. Both Alcoholics Anonymous and Overeaters Anonymous take a spiritual approach and
rely on group support. For those who want the latter without the
former, Weight Watchers uses the group dynamic to help
provide encouragement and accountability.
COLD OFFICES = EMPLOYEE ERRORS
Lower Temperatures
Lower Productivity
Lowering the thermostat at the
office may save on electricity bills -- but it might also cost your
company more in terms of lower productivity. Cornell University
researchers observed that chilly workers not only make more errors, but
fridge-like offices could increase a worker's hourly labor cost by
10%.
Professor Alan Hedge, Director of Cornell's Human
Factors and Ergonomics Laboratory, took a look at this chill factor
and found that when the office temperature was raised from 68
degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit, typing errors fell by 44% and
typing output jumped by 150%. Warmer workers went from shivering to
delivering: Keyboarding rates jumped from 54% of the time with a 25%
error rate at 68° to 100% of the time with a 10% error rate at
77°.
What to do if you work in an igloo? Show higher-ups that
higher temps could cut costs by as much as $2 per worker, per hour.
If you're still left out in the cold, look on the bright side: Your
fingers might be frozen on the keyboard, but your metabolism will
work overtime to keep you from going sub-thermal.
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 A LOOK AT LOW-CAL SWEETENERS
They're Light -- But
Are They Right?
Ever since I poured my first Diet
Fanta I've been a sucker for artificial sweeteners. But just what
have I been sucking down? They've marched from the lab to the
marketplace to our tables: Sweet'N Low, NutraSweet, sorbitol -- now
Splenda and stevia. Many a dieter (myself included) have turned to
them when in need of a sweet fix without sugar's empty
calories.
But just how safe are they? And what about new
research that says such sweeteners might fool our taste buds -- but
they still trigger insulin surges and weaken the body's ability to
regulate weight and food intake? Has it all been just too good --
and sweet -- to be true?
The FDA has given the green light to
sucralose, neotame, aspartame and saccharin after numerous, rigorous
trials to assess their safety. Stevia, though currently the rage
among the "all natural" crowd, has not yet been put through the same
paces, but since it's sold as a supplement, not a food ingredient,
the same safety standards don't apply.
The American Dietetic
Association says "sweeteners can promote diet healthfulness" by
reducing calorie intake and "increasing palatability of
nutrient-dense foods." It urges dietary professionals "to provide
consumers with science-based information about sweeteners," which we
offer below.
Sucralose: Sold in packets and as a
baking ingredient under the brand name Splenda, this sweetener is a
chemically treated form of sugar that can't be metabolized for
energy -- or stored as fat. This sugar sub has passed muster with
some of the most stringent nutrition critics and was found safe in
multiple animal studies.
Neotame: This sweetener is so
"neo" it's not widely incorporated into many commercially available
products. Though made from the same amino acids that constitute
aspartame, neotame breaks down in the body differently so it's not
toxic to folks with the rare disorder of phenylketonuria. Both
animal and human studies have given neotame a green
light.
Sugar Alcohols: Toothsome teetotalers won't get
tipsy from this sugar fake, sometimes referred to as sorbitol or
xylitol. The addition of an extra hydrogen molecule makes this sweet
cheat less absorbable than regular sugar. This metabolic bypass,
however, can leave some dieters gastrointestinally distressed, if
you know what I mean. The FDA politely refers to this as a "laxative
effect," so if this sweetie leaves you queasy, cut back on
consumption. Keep in mind that some versions of this compound are
more on the low-calorie rather than no-calorie range,
so read the label carefully.
Aspartame: One of the
most commonly consumed sweeteners, marketed variously as Equal,
NutraSweet and NatraTaste, this synthetic derivative has been
exhaustively studied and found safe except for those suffering from
phenylketonuria, as mentioned above. Conspiracy theorists may choose
to believe that it causes cancer, blindness and Alzheimer's -- but
the evidence is not there to support such charges. Nor is there
conclusive proof that it causes headaches, but if you're consuming
large amounts of aspartame-sweetened soda and suffer from headaches,
there's one way to investigate the existence of a causal
relationship: Stop drinking the stuff and see if you feel
better.
Saccharin: The granddaddy of artificial
sweeteners, Sweet'N Low nearly got the old heave-ho when animal
studies linked the additive to various cancers -- but kept its shelf
space with a warning label. Later, the FDA and National Institutes
of Health concluded that rats and humans did not develop bladder
cancer (the main health concern) in the same way, and the warning
was removed.
It should also be noted that the animal subjects
in the early studies ingested such huge amounts -- on the magnitude
of a person drinking two dozen two-liter bottles of
saccharin-sweetened soda a day -- as to weaken the original data's
relevance. Concerns persist, however, with the National Cancer
Institute noting only last year that some risk may exist with regard
to excessive consumption of those little pink packets and
saccharin-sweetened sodas.
Stevia: OK, I'll admit it.
I caught stevia-mania from various enthusiastic acupuncturists,
unemployed yoga instructors and health store cashiers, and I now
have a pantry full of the stuff. I was momentarily swept away by the
romantic but irrational idea that a product cultivated by humble
farmers in Paraguay and Brazil is somehow intrinsically safer than
sweeteners developed by companies that have invested massive
resources in R&D, submitted to government testing and have the
most to lose should their product be discovered to possess
deleterious side effects.
Since it's sold as a supplement,
stevia has not been required to meet the same safety standards as
the other sweeteners described above. But as health writer David
Schardt reported: "When male rats were fed high doses of stevioside
(stevia's active ingredient) for 22 months, sperm production was
reduced, the weight of seminal vesicles (which produce seminal
fluid) declined, and there was an increase in cell proliferation in
their testicles, which could cause infertility or other
problems. And when female hamsters were fed large amounts of a
derivative of stevioside called steviol, they had fewer and smaller
offspring."
To be fair, many other studies have found that
stevia is safe -- and may even lower blood pressure. Stevia has been
used for decades in Japan and other countries around the world. We
are eager to see further, long-term, randomized trials before
embracing stevia without reservation.
But Do They
Work? Sugar substitutes have been studied extensively with
regard to disease risk, and those given the FDA go-ahead are safe to
consume in moderation. But what about efficacy? We've always assumed
no-or-low-cal foods/beverages could help us lose weight, but a new
wave of research is uncovering counter-intuitive new questions, such
as: Do ersatz sweeteners actually trick us into eating
more?
A recent Purdue University study raised the possibility
that frequent consumption of diet foods and soft-drinks might
interfere with the body's natural ability to gauge calorie
intake, eventually leading to overeating and weight gain. The
animal study, published in last year's July issue of the
International Journal of Obesity, compared a group of rats fed a
steady diet of sugar-sweetened drinks to a second group sometimes
fed real-sugar, sometimes fake-sugar sweetened drinks.
After
10 days, both groups were given feed and sugar-sweetened drink. The
group that had been consuming both sugar and sugar-substitute ate
three times the calories as the real-sugar-only group, leading
researchers to conjecture that the diet including artificial
sweeteners interfered with the rats' natural food-intake instincts.
Could the same be true for humans? Possibly, though research has
clearly demonstrated that consumers who switch to diet vs. regular
soda and thereby reduce caloric intake do indeed lose
weight.
For dieters, it should reinforce the importance of
keeping a food journal, watching portion control and enjoying
reduced-calorie treats in moderation. Calorie-free does not
necessarily equate to consequence-free, any more than "natural"
equates with "safe." At the end of the day, there's still no free
lunch, even when ordered with diet soda and finished with a spoonful
of sugar substitute in your tea.
JUST PLUMMY
Recipes and Research to Change Your Tune
on Prunes
Oh, the poor, impugned prune. While other
tree fruit are used in odes to youth and beauty -- cherry lips,
apple cheeks, melon, um, you know -- no one wants to look like a
prune. The marketing stigma was such that prunes have been
rhetorically re-introduced as "dried plums."
Here's the
irony: Dried plums have one of the highest total antioxidant values
among commonly consumed fruit, which means that eating more prunes
might keep you from looking like them (by fighting the free radical
damage that can accelerate aging). The better known nutrient
associated with dried plums is fiber, which can help lower
cholesterol and maintain regularity.
When further plumbed,
dried plums were found to be an excellent source of vitamin K --
essential for strong teeth and bones. In one recent study, prunes provided protection against post-menopausal
bone loss -- and indeed may even be a dietary ingredient in
stopping and reversing osteoporosis. That bit of news caught my eye
and landed dried plums in my pantry, though I wasn't quite
salivating over the prospect of prunes in a dish for
breakfast.
Smoothies being more my style, here's one from Super Smoothies: 50 recipes for Health and
Energy, by Mary Corpening Barber and Sara Corpening
Whiteford. Their "Adios Anemia" smoothie provides 2 mg iron (11% of
your daily needs) plus a bevy of other vitamins and antioxidants.
Blend half a cup low-fat vanilla yogurt, one cup soymilk, one-third
cup stewed prunes, a banana and some ice.
Or try our featured
SuperFood Recipe: Winter Cobbler with Prunes and Apples.
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 YO-YO NO-NO?
Lost Weight Then Regained? Try, Try
Again!
Conventional wisdom about yo-yo dieting is
that there's no upside to up-and-down weight cycling. But is that
really true? There's no doubt that dietary rebound can take a toll
on one's self esteem. Some of the other commonly cited "dangers" of
yo-yo dieting deserve greater scrutiny -- and should be weighed
against the well-documented health hazards of remaining overweight
(hypertension, heart disease, cancer, stroke, Type 2 diabetes,
arthritis, early dementia, etc.).
We've checked into some of
the cliches about weight cycling, below, to separate myth from
menace:
1. "Yo-yo dieting lowers your metabolism."
FALSE. Among the reasons our metabolism may slow as we age is
diminished muscle mass (and increased fat mass) -- since a pound of
muscle burns 75 to 150 calories a day and a pound of fat burns only
3 calories day. If anything, weight loss efforts that include
exercise to increase muscle will boost your metabolism, even if you
gain some of the fat back.
2. "Yo-yo dieting is so bad for
you, it increases your risk of death." FALSE. In fact, the
opposite may be true: Just trying to lose weight lowers your
mortality risk, according to a recent U.S. government health
survey. While the study, published in the American College of
Physicians' Annals of Internal Medicine, found the greatest
longevity gains among those who succeed in losing weight, even those
who tried and failed to drop pounds shrank their mortality rate by
19%.
Researchers speculate that dieting might be a marker of
other healthy behaviors -- exercise, improved nutrition -- that
ultimately lengthen life. A Porter Novelli survey seemed to confirm
this, finding that 63% of dieters began exercising more after
beginning a diet.
3. "Yo-yo dieting leads to diabetes."
FALSE. A Harvard University study of 47,000 women found those
who weight cycled significantly (+/- 20 lbs. at least 3 times in 4
years) were no more likely to later develop diabetes than women
whose weight remained stable.
4. "Weight cycling will
redistribute fat to the tummy." MAYBE. While abdominal fat is
more dangerous than lower body bulge with regard to various
weight-related ailments, most studies do not indicate that repeated weight gain
and loss redistributes fat toward the middle. One study in the
International Journal of Obesity did find that overweight
women with a history of weight highs and lows tended to have more
subcutaneous fat in their neck, arms and abs.
5. "Up and
down dieting weakens the immune system." MAYBE. In a study of
114 obese, sedentary women ages 50 to 75, those who had lost and
regained at least 10 pounds in the past 20 years had diminished
immune function (as measured by the activity of white blood cells).
The question remains open, in my mind at least, whether it was the
loss-and-gain of weight, in and of itself, which weakened the
subjects' immunity, or the way in which the weight was lost and
regained.
For example, the profile of the "classic yo-yo
dieter," featured in the Los Angeles Times article, had lost weight
(later regained) on Atkins, liquid diets and diet pills -- each of
which are associated with independent health risks. So was it the
deflation-inflation of adipose tissue that took a toll on the
dieter's resistance -- or was it all the garbage (saturated fat,
processed diet foods, weight loss supplements) she was putting in
her body, and the good stuff (fruits and veggies) she was leaving
out?
The same question could be applied to the University of
Michigan study in which women who had gained 10 or more pounds at
least five times in one year were more likely to have
decreased coronary blood flow than those with fewer weight changes.
More research is needed to determine whether a history of being
overweight, the method of losing weight, or the
cycling of weight is the true culprit.
In the
meantime, don't let past mistakes or fear of failure keep you fat.
Steer clear of gimmicks like Atkins, identify and avoid your trigger
foods, fill up on high-fiber, high-water content fruits and
vegetables, and be disciplined about exercise -- to burn calories,
boost metabolism and blunt appetite.
You may not succeed your
first go-around, your second or third -- but as researcher Diane
Berry Ph.D. observed from the results of her Yale School of Nursing
weight loss study: "It takes multiple attempts" to win the battle of
the bulge. "No one in my study lost weight and kept it off the first
time around. If you get off base, forgive yourself and get back on
track instead of giving yourself permission to start overeating."
Above all, don't use yo-yo mumbo jumbo as an excuse to avoid
the weight loss fray. To put a twist on St. Augustine's famous
phrase about love: Better to have lost and gained than never to have
lost at all.
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SUPERFOOD RECIPE
Winter Cobbler with
Prunes and Apples
Prep: 15 min.
Bake: 40
min.
Makes: 9 servings
2 cans (8 oz. each) DOLE Crushed
Pineapple in Juice, undrained
1 box (12 oz.) DOLE Pitted Prunes,
halved
2 medium green cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly
sliced
3/4 cup DOLE Seedless Raisins
1 cup quick cooking
oatmeal
3/4 cup pie crust mix
1/2 cup light brown sugar,
packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground
ginger
Combine undrained pineapple, prunes, apples and raisins in
9-inch square baking pan.
Combine oatmeal, pie crust mix, brown sugar, cinnamon and
ginger, in medium bowl.
Spoon topping over fruit, patting down with back of spoon. Bake
on bottom shelf of 375° F. oven 40 minutes or until top is browned.
Let cool 30 minutes before serving. Dollop with low-fat vanilla
yogurt, if desired.
Per Serving: 341 calories, 5 g fat (1 g
sat.), 0 mg cholesterol, 114 mg sodium, 72 g carbohydrate (6 g
dietary fiber, 60 g sugars), 3 g protein, 1% Vit A, 10% Vit C, 2%
calcium, 8% iron, 8% potassium, 2% folate.
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WINTER OATMEAL MASK
Dry Skin
Recipe
What you'll need:
1 cup old-fashioned
oatmeal, not instant
1/4 cup Dole banana or avocado, mashed
1
capsule vitamin E
1 tsp. honey
milk, as needed
Blend
oatmeal, banana or avocado and honey. Squeeze in contents of a
vitamin E capsule, adding milk to get a spread-able consistency.
Gently massage onto skin, let set for 10 minutes. Rinse. Pat dry;
apply toner and moisturizer as usual.
Sensitive Skin
Recipe
What you'll need:
1 cup old-fashioned
oatmeal, not instant
3 Tbs. strongly brewed chamomile tea
1/2
medium Dole banana, mashed
Blend oatmeal and banana, adding
tea bit by bit to achieve a paste-like consistency. Apply and follow
same routine as above.
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Last issue: What's on top of
your New Year's Resolutions? Nearly a third (32%) of
respondents said weight loss, over a quarter said
exercise more, a very impressive 21.6% said eat more
fruits and vegetables, followed by reduce stress (11.7%)
and improve finances (9.3%).
Now here's a toughie
...
With two-thirds of Americans either obese or
overweight, it's likely we know and care about someone
whose weight seriously threatens their health. A little
bit of pudge is one thing, but what should you do when
someone you love is literally eating himself or herself
into an early grave?
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Share concern about
health |
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Offer to exercise with
them |
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Suggest diet
tips/recipes |
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Say nothing, it's their
problem |
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