All posts tagged: weight loss

How prepared food is sabotaging our health…

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I was in the store recently in a large city. It was a very nice grocery store, and most people who go there think highly of their merchandise. I do a lot of flipping packages around and REALLY looking at nutrition information. Because most of the time it just makes my blood boil. THE PREPARED FOOD INDUSTRY IS KILLING US!! Here’s a perfect example! Frozen Entree, ready to eat, just warm it up. Says “Clean Planet” on the label. Can’t be all bad, right? WRONG. So, let’s break this down. 17 g of fat isn’t a big deal, but it depends on what oil source it is coming from. Looking at the ingredients, I have trouble figuring out where the saturated fat comes from since Chicken breast, Olive Oil and seasonings don’t have much. So that is perplexing. Next is the carbs, and that is where they get you. 71 carbs in one 12 oz. serving, including 21 grams of added sugars? Woah! For comparison, A SNICKERS BAR has 33 gm of carbs… (and no, …

How to survive Holiday Parties

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Have you lost weight and want it to stay off? Are you actively trying to lose weight… or, are you a good weight but don’t want the upcoming months, holidays and winter to add on the post-holiday ten pounds? One of the hardest things is dealing with food and social gatherings.   No matter what holidays you celebrate, food is pivotal in all of them.  Here are the guidelines that work well for me. The basic thing to avoid is the one component that makes your insulin shoot up, making you WANT more food:  CARBOHYDRATES! Here’s a good strategy:  Be absolutely sure you eat protein.  Chicken, shrimp, beef, fish, nuts.  Buffets often have smaller portions, so pick your selections so you get your 4 oz. serving by end of night.  EAT FAT.  Yes, I said EAT FAT.  That’s what will satiate you.  So, dips, cheese (if you can tolerate dairy), bacon, dressings that aren’t loaded with sugar.  Fat will make you feel full.  AVOID CARBS AT EVERY TURN.  Put dip on veggies, not crackers.  Skip the …

10 Days, 10 Ways to Lower Carbs, Day 10

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Ok, Day 10 of 10!  For my “finale” (thank God, this has been hard to post 10 days in a row!),  I’ll talk about supplements to add to your regimen and some general guidelines and links to articles that I think have important information about insulin resistance, weight loss, and staying healthy.   Here are a few supplements that can help stabilize your insulin levels and lower your blood sugar: It’s important you take a good multi-vitamin, even if you are eating totally healthy.  (read why here and more here).  I take Multigenics Phyto Multi which contains vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients.  It is widely available. Vitamin D is not really a vitamin, but plays a very important role in metabolism.  Many of us are Vitamin D deficient.  As you doctor to check your level.  Taking 1,000-5,000 units/day of Vitamin D3 is considered pretty safe in most people. read more here There are a few other things that can help your insulin levels stabilize if you’ve struggled with your weight, or if you want to lose …

10 Days, 10 Ways to Lower Carbs, Day 4

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This one is simple once you see it in facts.  Stop drinking ALL juice.  Here’s why: Let’s take something you’d never eat on a diet.  How about a “fun size” snickers bar?  That’s clearly in the “no-no” zone, right?  Well, what if I told you that when it comes to blood sugar, insulin, and weight gain, orange juice is worse?  Would you be incredulous?  Here are the facts, based on TWO tiny snickers vs. 1 cup of OJ: So, the calories are a bit higher in the snickers bars.  But, although nutrient devoid (and that’s another post), they have less sugars than the OJ!  Now, this does not mean I want you to go out and eat snickers, but it does mean your use of juice should be negligible to NONE.  These calories go straight into your bloodstream, as there is no fiber in the juice to slow digestion.  Juice is not an item you want in your food plan at all.  In case you’d like more information, all the juices are listed here.  I …

10 Days, 10 Ways to lower carbs: Day 1

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The secret to staying healthy is lowering your carbohydrate intake. And I don’t just mean losing weight, I’m talking about lowering your cholesterol, triglycerides and inflammation.  The stuff that makes us chronically sick. I’m going to post 10 days/10 ways you can lower your carbohydrate intake. DAY ONE: Ditch Dairy, specifically Milk MILK is nutritious, but it’s also fairly high in carbs because it contains a type of sugar called lactose. (Remember, its purpose in life was to GROW baby cows!). An 8-ounce (240 ml) glass of full-fat or low-fat milk contains 12–13 grams of carbs. This is especially important if you drink milk by the glassful or in lattes or shakes. SWITCH TO: coconut, almond milk, hemp milk. (Again, this isn’t about dairy, it’s about CARBS:  case in point?  Rice milk is a dairy alternative, but is FULL of carbs, and isn’t any better than milk, in fact it is the highest in carbs.). Look for unsweetened varieties that have less than 2 carbs per serving (carbs minus fiber = total carbs).  Look at …

Fasting 101

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Okay, there’s been a lot in the media lately about fasting.  Here’s my take on it based on research and what I learned at Food As Medicine. There are amazing immune and cardiac benefits to fasting, in addition to weight loss.  But, you must do it correctly. The benefits are so startling it is worth considering incorporating fasting into your lifestyle as a routine practice.  The type of fasting I will talk about here is INTERMITTENT fasting, and specifically, the kind that only goes for 15-18 hours.  According to the latest research, you get most of the benefits of a fast without the torture of not eating for long periods without eating. Intermittent fasting is: A 15-18 hour period of not eating (eg;  eat dinner, then eat your next meal 15-18 hours later) done 1-2/week on average You can drink water, tea and coffee while you are fasting (non-calorie beverages – NO SODA) People who intermittently fast get benefits in 14-18 hours.  Here’s why:  increased Autophagy.  Autophagy is a normal physiological process in the body …

Common myths about food.

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I’m going to do a post on diet, food and myths that absolutely need to be de-bunked. Cheese is bad for you. Low Fat Foods are Better for You.  This is the WORST misconception of them all. Don’t use Butter, use margarine. Juice is healthy and good for you. Don’t eat eggs, they will make your cholesterol too high. Brown rice is better than white rice Don’t eat avocados, they have too much fat Agave is better than sugar.  Agave is a natural sweetner. If you test negative for celiac, it is ok to eat wheat. When it comes to nutrition, sometimes it’s hard to tell the fact from the fiction. Certain foods get a reputation as “bad for you,” whereas others get promoted as “natural” or “good for you” when they are really not. Sometimes myths about foods are based on urban legends that just get perpetuated for years until we actually believe they are research-based. Other myths are based on old research that was not done in a scientific manner. Whatever the reason, …

Shallot Vinaigrette

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I have resorted to making most of my salad dressings these last several years because salad dressings have lots of hidden SUGAR.  Just look at your favorite dressing, many have HFCS in them (high fructose corn syrup) and most are full of preservatives. Here’s an easy dressing that is worth the prep time (~15 min) and will last about a week in your frig. Everyone who has had it raves about it, so I think I’m on to something.  If, when you’re done it is too vinegary, just add a bit more oil or a teaspoon of honey. It is helpful to have a really good blender for this recipe.  You cannot create it without one. 2016 update:  I also want to add that this recipe can change VASTLY if you have huge shallot bulbs.  See my notes below.  A friend made this when I first posted it and it was awful, but her shallot bulbs were HUGE.  I use small shallot bulbs, the size of a garlic clove.  You can use the big ones, …

Research confirms the opposite of what we were taught.

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Recently, there are two studies I’d like to talk about that confirm what I’ve been saying on this blog for almost two years: 1.  Fats are NOT the enemy, they are your friend. 2.  Carbs are NOT your friend, they are the enemy! Recent studies just published back up what many functional medicine practitioners and “Wheat Belly” Author Dr. William Davis have been saying:  CARBS are the enemy.  Carbs are what cause your insulin levels to go up, your blood sugars to rise, your hunger to increase, your triglycerides and cholesterol to rise and they put all of us at risk for Type 2 Diabetes, they make Type 1 Diabetics worse, and they contribute to AGING, BRAIN FOG and cardiac disease. Here’s two examples of what I mean by the opposite: 1.  Multi-grain toast – good?  NO, BAD! Nutritionists established DECADES ago that wheat increases blood sugar more profoundly THAN TABLE SUGAR.  Glycemic Index, the index that measures how our bodies respond to a food item (and this is more important than you realize:  it …

Our food has become toxic.

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This picture speaks volumes.  I’ve already talked about why soda, (diet OR regular) is bad for you, but there’s so much more to say.  Sugar is buried in everything.  And it’s killing us.  86 million people in the US have pre-diabetes, and NINE OUT OF TEN don’t know they have it!  15-30% of them will develop full blown Type 2 Diabetes within 10 years.  Economically speaking, the cost of diabetes alone is $245 BILLION dollars a year.  Think of what we could do with 245 billion. (And two years ago, it was 174 Billion…  this trajectory is going to bankrupt us more than any other cost.)  So many of these people could reverse their pre/Type 2 diabetes simply by eating whole foods.  (see my post on this, you CAN reverse Type 2 Diabetes!) Here’s where a lot of people are at:  you are a bit overweight, but your doctor hasn’t told you you you’re sick.  But, you probably are.  Maybe you’re on a statin, you blood sugar is around 100 — or maybe you aren’t …

Yes Virginia, it’s the sugar….

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There’s a new movie out by a team of people trying to educate people about the way we eat.  YOU MUST SEE IT.  It is called FED UP, and it’s the movie the food industry doesn’t want us to see.  EVERYTHING we’ve been told about food and exercise for the last 30 years is wrong.  This move is from Katie Couric, Laurie David (Oscar winning producer of An Inconvenient Truth) and Director Stephanie Soechtig.  FED UP will change the way you eat forever, if this blog hasn’t yet! Do you know what to look for when you read a label in the grocery store?  Do you realize that the food industry is trying to lull us into thinking certain foods are diet foods when they contain 40+ grams of carbs (which turns into sugar in your body once you digest it!) Do you know that sugar goes by over 200 names on food labels? Do you know that school children injest more sugar than adults? Empower yourself.  Get this movie, call your local theatre and …

The Better Pasta

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Recently I had an appointment with my Nutritionist, who is responsible for millions of people getting healthy.  Kathie Swift, MS, RD, LDN is the practitioner who introduced Mark Hyman, M.D. to both functional medicine and food as an avenue to health.  She was the person who taught half of my week long workshop in 2008 when I began my wellness odyssey and I am eternally grateful to her for her wisdom and guidance. She is the person I turn to when I get stuck in my weight loss journey, and she is brilliant and up to date on all things regarding food and medicine.  We were recently talking about the “holes” in eating gluten free (things we miss) and I mentioned that my husband and I occasionally ate Einkhorn pasta (a wheat pasta using the original wheat from Italy that hasn’t been hybridized and modified the way our wheat has, thereby making it much less reactive).  She suggested we try some of the low carb pastas made from alternative beans (black bean and mung bean). …