Category: Weight Loss

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Eat More Dried Fruit

The researchers found that people who ate dried fruit were generally healthier than those who did not, and on days when people ate dried fruit they consumed greater amounts of some key nutrients than on days when they skipped. However, they also found that people consumed more total calories on days when they ate dried fruit.

Previous research has found that poor diet contributes to nearly half of deaths from cardiovascular disease in the U.S., with a lack of fruit being a major factor. According to the researchers, fruits provide an abundance of nutrients, including fiber, potassium and several heart-healthy bioactives.

Penn State. “Eating dried fruit may be linked with better diet quality and health markers.” ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/11/201124150849.htm (accessed November 30, 2020).

Journal Reference:

Valerie K. Sullivan, Muzi Na, David N. Proctor, Penny M. Kris-Etherton, Kristina S. Petersen. Consumption of Dried Fruits Is Associated with Greater Intakes of Underconsumed Nutrients, Higher Total Energy Intakes, and Better Diet Quality in US Adults: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007-2016.. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.jand.2020.08.085

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More Random Thoughts on Sunday After Thanksgiving 2020

Sunday 11/29

Never get too high, never get too low. Trust the Process which has been developed and refined for nearly 45 years of weight loss followed by weight gain followed again with weight loss… The Truth Machine today displayed 177 and I am both pleased and relieved. I survived another Thanksgiving feast! Reading this you might think I’m compulsive about my weight. Guilty as charged. You get kind of obsessed with your weight when you never want to be 370 pounds again, ever. I am 70 inches tall. In high school I was the shortest (and heaviest) power forward on the hardwood. I had a decent shot but was better at rebounding because I took up so much space. I was also Captain of the tennis team but that’s a whole other story.

The roller coaster of shifting weights has been the story of my life. A constant struggle. A battle between the food within reach and my brain, one saying yes, the other saying well, here we go again. Part of the problem of losing a lot of weight is complacency. Knowing what works and what to do is not the same thing as doing that thing. I got lazy and allowed myself to balloon back up to 200-205. The Truth Machine had lost its policing effect. My brain started rationalizing, hey it’s a hell of a lot better than 370! Besides most people gain weight as they age…

I’m old enough now to remember what life was like before unsocial media. One (of the many) things I dislike about unsocial media are those dumb ass reminders in your online photo collections: One Year Ago Today…Two Years Ago This Week, etc. Well, at Thanksgiving this year for me, this unsocial media feature got a bit less unsavory.

“I saw a Memory on my photo timeline the other day. We were on the beach in Rhode Island and you looked heavier than you do now.”

“You mean fatter.”

“Not fatter, just heavier. You look really good now.”

And this ends the story of the best Thanksgiving ever observing Covid-19 pandemic guidelines while preparing turkey in a way you’ve never done before. Random Thoughts the Day After Thanksgiving 2020. The turkey turned out great and I got validation my weight loss efforts were working (again). The Mojo is back. I’ll be working on my book for a few hours today.

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The Apology Post – 11.01.20

Before we go any further I am guilty as charged. I’m spending a lot of time with https://lifeunderwriter.net/ and even more time at my Day Job so the posts here have been somewhat sparse. I promise to be better. A lot of time has also been devoted to my Pandemic Weight Loss Program. I started the year at 192 pounds. This morning the scale was 176.2 pounds. A lot of folks have been on the Pandemic Weight Gain Plan. And for faithful readers who want to know more about my weight plan you’ll just have to buy the book (if and when I ever finish writing it). But for now, here’s the latest I’ve stumbled upon in the plant based diet craze.

CONCLUSIONS: Young adults who increased plant-centered diet quality had a lower diabetes risk and gained less weight by middle adulthood.

A Shift Toward a Plant-Centered Diet From Young to Middle Adulthood and Subsequent Risk of Type 2 Diabetes and Weight Gain: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study — Diabetes Care 2020 Nov; 43(11): 2796-2803. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc20-1005

Small study (n=206) but still interesting.

CONCLUSIONS: Replacement of red and processed meat with cheese, yogurt, nuts, or cereals was associated with a lower rate of type 2 diabetes. Substituting red and processed meat by other protein sources may contribute to the prevention of incident type 2 diabetes in European populations.

Replacement of Red and Processed Meat With Other Food Sources of Protein and the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in European Populations: The EPIC-InterAct Study — https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/43/11/2660?rss=1

Another interesting study but with serious limitations as the authors themselves point out:

A limitation of the current study is that the food substitutions were inferred based on a statistical model that compared individuals with different average intakes while no one actively changed their diet.

Well, I’ve actively changed my diet the past several months. I know increased exercise did not contribute to my weight loss (I have some physical limitations and actually cancelled my gym membership due to the virus). Hopefully I’ll find the time to review and document the changes that generated the loss.

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    I am not a Vegan

    “Are you a vegan?”

    No.

    “Are you a vegetarian?”

    No.  I just don’t eat as much animal proteins as I used to.

    “So where do you get your protein from?”

    Plant-Based-Sources-of-Protein

    Plant-Based Protein Chart

    Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. This means you are free to use my work for personal use (e.g., save the file to your computer or share via social media) as long as you do not modify the image or use the image for commercial purposes ($).

    Original posting is from Dana McDonald RD LD aka the Rebel Dietician.

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    Match a Weight Loss Diet to YOUR DNA (psst… doesn’t work)

    “There was no significant difference in weight change among participants matched vs mismatched to their diet assignment,” the researchers wrote. There was also no DNA/diet interaction for waist circumference, body mass index, or body fat percentage.

    “I had this whole rationale for why these three [DNA variants] would have an effect,” said Stanford’s Christopher Gardner, co-author of the $8 million study. He previously led a smaller study, in 2010, finding that overweight women whose genotype matched their diet lost 13 pounds in a year while those who were mismatched lost just over 4 pounds. “But let’s cut to the chase: We didn’t replicate that study, we didn’t even come close. This didn’t work.”

    The source article can be found here.

    Beware of companies selling you stuff based on junk science. 

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    How to Eat to Lose Weight

    It’s important to provide information on the healthfulness of food choices, rather than to simply recommend decreasing portion sizes.

    There is a link to the study abstract in the source article here.

    Small number of subjects but a crossover design RCT.

    English Translation:

    Portion sizes and food choices matter.

    (so if you go out for Tex Mex eat half the number of tortillas you usually eat and take home half of what’s on your plate for another meal).

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    The Unoriginal Cabbage Soup

    Nothing of importance is ever achieved without discipline. I feel myself sometimes not wholly in sympathy with some modern educational theorists, because I think that they underestimate the part that discipline plays. But the discipline you have in your life should be one determined by your own desires and your own needs, not put upon you by society or authority.

    Bertrand Russell

    We all know better, but we don’t choose better. I was a cokehead, a heroin addict. At night you get coked up knowing you’re going to feel terrible in the morning. You have to make the habit of doing what’s difficult now to make you better. It’s easy to do the right thing when you’re used to it.

    Russell Simmons

    I named this soup Unoriginal because there’s really nothing original about cabbage soup.  It could just as easily be called What’s in the Fridge Soup because I had a small head of cabbage that needed to be eaten.  There were two halves of two different peppers and half an onion.  What do you do with these odds and ends?

    Soup.

    Something happened to me this summer.  I was a lapsed vegetarian for over 30 years and in the beginning of August I got serious about my diet (again).  Kyrie credits his diet for the recent Celtics winning streak.  Clearly something is happening to a lot of people.  It’s not just me.

    Choose better.  Losing 200 pounds was not easy.  Regaining 40 pounds was easy.  Making the right food choices?  Trust me, it’s easier than you think.

    1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    1 clove garlic minced
    1/2 large onion, thin sliced
    2 carrots, peeled cut into coins
    1 stalk celery sliced thin diagonally
    1/2 each red and green bell pepper, slice
    1 cup frozen corn
    7 oz canned diced tomatoes with juice
    1 small head green cabbage sliced
    1 quart organic vegetable broth
    1/2 Tbsp paprika
    1 tsp dried oregano
    1/2 tsp dried thyme
    Salt and pepper to taste

    1. In a medium size pot heat the olive oil.
    2. Everybody (except tomatoes, corn and broth) in the pool in the following order: onion, carrots, celery, peppers, garlic, cabbage.
    3. Saute until the cabbage wilts, add herbs, salt, and pepper.
    4. Add vegetable broth and tomatoes.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer.
    5. Simmer partially covered for 30 minutes.  Add corn and simmer an additional 5-10 minutes.
    6. Yum.

     

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    Garlic Toast with Balsamic Tomatoes and White Beans

    It’s been really interesting getting used to the new ingredient selection and price differences at the grocery stores since moving from New Orleans to Nashville. One major difference is that canned goods at Kroger are almost half the price of the canned goods at the local grocery store that I used to frequent.

    Source: Garlic Toast with Balsamic Tomatoes and White Beans

    I personally have not tried this recipe but the pictures look awesome and I wanted to “bookmark” the source.  I’ve been following Budget Bytes for some time and Beth does a great job.

    Besides the beans, tomatoes and pictures what caught my eye was the comment on the food cost differential by geography.  Why should canned beans be twice the price in one city versus another?  Dynamic pricing and profits.  Simple answer.

    Beans are cheap.  And beans are cheaper in Oklahoma too.

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