Your posture can affect your weight

People who rush and eat standing up, in the car, talking on the phone or while watching television
are prone to eating more volume than people who take the time to sit down and savor food. Typically, quick consumption of calories leads people to continue eating before realizing they are full. It must become a
practice, states Connie Guttersen, author of The Sonoma Diet. Enjoying food, especially with the people you love, not only helps your waist line stay in shape but your entire state of living become more enjoyable.

Toxins affect your weight.  When you clean your home, do your laundry, wash your dishes are you using products that are non-toxic (don't have chemicals) and biodegradeable (break up)?  If not, there are several reasons why you should:

1. Toxins absorb in the fat cells of the body, which promotes weight gain.
2. Toxins cause cancer, lupus, MS, asthma, allergies and the list goes on.
3. If you are buying store bought items, you are getting toxins and they are not breaking up in the septic fields, in your pipes, and in the sewer system, which hurts our planet.

What can you do?  Loosing weight is a Cinch and when following the program for 12 weeks you can Get Clean.  Click on the names and learn more.

You can also call Mary Beth at 810-813-3308 for a complimentary Personal Confidential Nutrition Consultation.   

Eat well in tight times

Do you have to give up eating well because your budget has been reduced?  No.  According to Catharine H.Powers R.D. of the Nutrient-Rich Foods Coalition, "If you do it right, it's cheaper than what you're doing now."  Catharine goes on to say, "if you wait until 6 p.m.to decide what to eat for dinner you won't have all the ingredients." 

You don' t need to eat meat every day.  If you're family won't go meatless, reduce portions to 3 ounces and the meat will last for more than one meal. 

Want to add nutritional value to convenience foods?  Add frozen mixed vegetables to noodles or mix grated reduced-fat cheddar cheese into macaroni and cheese from a box.

Smart Switches

Switch from   Individual packets of sweetened oatmeal
To                  Quick-cooking oats

Switch from    Hamburger and pasta seasoning mix
To                   Whole-grain pasta, dried herbs

Switch from     Instant rice
To                    Brown rice or quick-cooking brown rice

These are a few of the switches Catharine recommended.

You can do switches in smart ways without overwhelming yourself or your family.  One is make one  or two of the above changes in a month and continue to do this on a monthly basis.  Or just do it without telling your family.  They probably won't even notice if you are the primary cook in the house.  Most importantly food will taste better and it is better for everyone.

Are Multivitamins Dead?

When I was pregnant, I thought the pre-natal vitamin was good.  But then it was packed with iron and well I didn't do so well with the iron.  It wasn't the iron, it was what they didn't put with the iron to help it absorb into my body.  Why?  It was synthetic. 

In the November 2010 article in Prevention Magazine there was an article "Should you Kick the Multivitamin Habit?"

The article concluded that multivitamins provide not proven benefit and may actually cause harm.    the readers of Prevention were encouraged instead to focus on supplements containing Vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids and calcium.

So, the quesiton becomes "Are multivimins dead?"

The media only gives half the story.  Why?  Pharmaceutical companies don't want us to take whole food supplements.  Think about it.  If we eat healthy 80% of the time, exercise and take a high end natural line of supplements, we won't need prescriptions or we will need a bare minimum.  Thus reducing their profits significantly. 

Balance is the key.  Are multivitamins good?  Depends on what brand you take.  Should that be the only thing you take?  It depends on you.  Age, lifestyle, gender, all of these factors need to be considered when determining what supplements you need.

Who can help?  ME.  I am passionate about helping people who want an honest, reliable and trusting person.  

We can work together to  help you live a long, healthy and HAPPY life. 

Sugar

It is said that we do need some sugar for brain health.  However, like with many things, too much of one thing is not good for the body and the mind. 

Today is Halloween.  How much sugar will your child consume?  According to UCLA med research we lose 5 hours of immunity for every tsp of sugar we consume.

If you're like me you "help" your child eat candy.  I can eat one piece and that satisfies my craving.  But it is hard to resist candy and maybe you like to eat more than one piece and your child is the same way.  We do like to give our children treats.

However, what happens is eating candy and Halloween being in the cold and flu season, children get sick.  So how can you let your child indulge one day and still help him with his immune system?  Well one is giving them a good dinner before trick or treating.  Two, supplements (vitamins and herbs that we can't get from our food supply).  This offsets the affect of candy, keep in mind it doesn't replace good food (fresh fruits and veggies).

Here are supplements I recommend:  Multi vitamin, vitamin C, immune builder, probiotic.

Prevention is the key to something as common as the cold to cancer.

Have a Happy and Healthy Halloween.

Mary Beth

Low Fat vs Low Carb

Literally dozens of studies have been published on the subject.  They are in agreement that initial weight loss (mostly water) is faster on the low carbe diets but weight lostt at one or two years is essentially the same on both.

The unique feature of the study just published inAnnals of Internal Medicine (153: 147-157, 2010) was that it included an intensive behavior modification program to optimize the weight loss over the two year period of the study.

Here is how the study was conducted: 

The low-carbohydrate group was instructed to eat no more than 20 grams of carbohydrate per day for 3 months and then to increase the carbohydrate by no more than 5 grams per day each week until they achieved their desired weight.

The low-fat group was instructed to decrease calories and restrict fat intake to no more than 30% of calories.

All of the patients were enrolled in a lifestyle program designed to help them improve their physical activity and other lifestyle factors.

The program met weekly for 20 weeks, every other week for another 20 weeks, and then monthly for the rest of the 2-year study. In short, this was a very good behavior modification program.  Weight, blood pressure, blood lipid levels and side effects were measured at the beginning of the program and at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months.  Considering the enormous effort put into behavior modification, the results of this study were somewhat disappointing.

The participants lost an average of only 22 pounds and the end of year one and had gained back 7 of those
pounds by the end of year two.  And that only included the ~50% who stayed with the program for the whole two years. Who knows how much weight was gained by the people who dropped out of the study?

Since the behavior modification program used in this study did not significantly impact either weight loss or weight maintenance, it's perhaps not surprising that the other findings of this study are pretty much the same as the findings from previous studies. 

Weight loss was slightly greater in the low carb group at 6 months, but did not differ significantly between the two groups at either 1 year or two years.  Triglyceride levels and blood pressure were lower for the low carb group at 6 and 12 months, but were the same for both groups at 2 years.

The only significant differences between the two groups at 2 years were LDL (bad) cholesterol levels - which
were significantly lower in the low fat group - and HDL (good) cholesterol levels - which were significantly higher in the low carb group.

Ironically, I've already seen blogs from proponents of the low carb diets trumpeting the increase in HDL levels as "proof" that low carb diets are better for your heart.

But, it's not just HDL or LDL that's important, it's the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol that
determines your risk of heart disease.  And at two years the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol was virtually identical on the two diets.

As for side effects, the patients on the low carb diet reported more constipation and more problems with bad
breath. If you've beeen on a low carb diet before, that's probably not news to you.

So what is the take home message from this study? 

1) The laws of thermodynamics still work. It's all about calories in versus calories out. Low carb and low fat diets work equally well for weight loss.

2) If you just focus on blood lipid levels and blood pressure there is also no significant difference between the two diets.

However, I still recommend against high fat (low carb) diets as a long term lifestyle strategy.  We know that high fat diets are much more likely to cause inflammation - which is a risk factor for multiple diseases.  We also know that long term consumption of high fat diets is associated with increased risk of heart disease, certain types of cancers & diabetes.

So a diet is a way of changing your eating habits. 
 
Thank you Dr. Chaney for providing this excellent information.  
 
What if you could loose the fat and maintain/increase muscle, without it being difficult, would you do it?  Is it a Cinch?  Call Mary Beth at 810-813-3308 and find out how simple it is.

Will Belly Fat make you dumb?

Abdominal obesity (otherwise known as "belly fat") increases your risk of dying from both heart disease and cancer.

But you probably knew that already.

Here is a recent study that breaks new ground and should really grab your attention.

This study showed that abdominal obesity dramatically increases your risk of developing dementia as you age (RA Whitmer et al, Neurology, 71: 1057-1064, 2008).

This study involved 6,583 members of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, ages 40 to 45, who had their abdominal obesity measured between 1964 and 1973.

The investigators then pulled their medical records between 1994 and 2006 when they were between 73 and 87 years old and asked how many of them had dementia.

The results may shock you.

The participants were divided into five groups based on their abdominal circumference. Those with the largest abdominal circumference were nearly 3 times more likely to have developed dementia than those with the smallest abdominal circumference.

And that was after the data were adjusted for age, sex, race, education, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, stroke and heart disease - all factors that are known to affect the risk of dementia.

Interestingly enough the abdominal circumference was a better predictor of dementia risk than was BMI, the most frequently used measure of obesity.

Those subjects who had high abdominal obesity and normal BMI had a 2-fold increased risk of developing dementia, while those subjects who were obese but had normal abdominal circumference had only an 80% increased risk of developing dementia.

Of course, those people who were both obese and had a large belly were the worst off - they had almost a 4- fold increased risk of developing dementia.

Are you thinking, "If I don't like what I see when I look into the mirror, am I doomed to develop dementia when I get older?"

The answer is no. Most experts feel that the effects of abdominal obesity are reversible.

But the time to act is now!

If you wait until you get older, you might just forget that you ever read this article.

Thank you to Dr. Stephen Chaney for this valuable information.

If you are reading this, know there is a safe, tasty way to loose that belly fat.  Contact Mary Beth at Mama Bear Productions to find out how much of a Cinch it really is!

Soy and Boys

You've probably seen some of those web sites talking about the dangers of soy - or read newsletters based on the information in those web sites.

If you believed those web, sites you would think that soy protein products were some sort of evil plot to undermine the health of the American public.

A topic that is not always discussed but a concern especially to moms.  The effect of soy on males.

The anti-soy web sites claim that the weak estrogenic effect of soy isoflavones can cause feminization of boys and weaken men's sexual drive and reproductive ability (Evidently, someone forgot to tell the Chinese about that last one!).

That is nonsense because testosterone is structurally very similar to estrogen.

The soy isoflavones resemble natural testosterone just as much as they resemble natural estrogen - which is probably why some studies show that soy isoflavones slow the increase in PSA levels for men with prostate cancer.
 
The claims found in the anti-soy sites are primarily based on animal studies, but that is misleading because mice don't metabolize the soy isoflavones in the same way that humans do.

Two recently published studies have looked at the effects of isoflavones and isoflavone-containing soy protein in men. Both analyzed multiple previously published double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials (meta-analyses). This approach increases the statistical power of the conclusions by smoothing out some of the natural variation seen in individual studies.
 
The first study (Hamilton-Reeves et al, Fertil June 11, E-pub ahead of print, 2009) combined the results of 15 clinical trials and showed that soy isoflavones and isoflavone-containing soy protein intake had no effect on:  total and free testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin (a protein that binds to, and stabilizes, testosterone in the bloodstream,  and free androgen index (FAI) - an index of all of the hormones in the bloodstream that have masculinization effects (Yes, guys - it's not just testosterone that makes us who we are).
 
The second study (Messina, Fertil. Steril., 93:2095-2104, 2010) combined the results of 9 clinical trials and showed that soy isoflavones and isoflavone containing soy protein consumption had no effect on:  total or free testosterone levels, circulating estrogen levels (Yes, guys - we do make some estrogen), sperm or semen parameters (Some guys might argue that this is the bottom line).
So the definitive results are in and, once again the Emperors (the doctors writing the ant-soy web sites) have been shown to have no clothes.

So soy and boys are a good combination.  Thank you to Dr. Stephen Chaney for this excellent information.

To find out about high quality and non GMO Soy Protein products, click here.  Or call Mary Beth at 810-813-3308.