Diet and Nutrition

Twinkie Diet Causes Man to Lose 27 Pounds

Mark Haub, a professor of nutrition at Kansas State wanted to make a point: calorie count matters more than nutritional content when it comes to weight-loss. To argue his case, he embarked on a 10-week Twinkie diet and shed 27 pounds.  He ate a snack cake or bag of chips every three hours, but only consumed a total of 1,800 calories total per day. Before the diet, he has a body mass index of 28.8, and continued his diet until he reached a BMI of 24.9, which is considered a normal weight.

However, about a third of Haub’s diet did consist of more nutritional foods. He drank a protein shake daily and took a multivitamin. He also ate vegetables, like canned green beans or several sticks of celery.

Haub deemed his super-unhealthy diet a “convenience store diet,” and does not recommend that anyone follow his example. Although his diet may have lacked many nutritional sources, many other health indicators actually improved for Haub after following the diet. His “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his “good” cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. Haub reduced his level of triglycerides, another  form of fat, by 39 percent.

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Posted on November 8, 2024 by Health Buzz

Mediterranean Diet Can Lower Cholesterol

You’ve probably all heard about the health benefits of eating a Mediterranean diet, right? This diet that’s high in nuts, fish, legumes, fruits and vegetables, has been shown to even prevent type II diabetes and lower heart disease risk. According to new research, this popular diet can also help reduce cholesterol levels.

A recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that when researchers added monounsaturated fats (MUFAs, for short) to a low-cholesterol diet for patients with mild to moderate elevated cholesterol levels, the participants had an increase in their HDL (good cholesterol) and a decrease in their LDL (bad cholesterol) levels. MUFAs are found in nuts such as peanuts, walnuts, almonds and pistachios. MUFAs are also high in olive oil, canola oil and avocados (holy guacamole!). (more…)

Posted on November 8, 2024 by Jennipher

McDonald’s Offers 15-Minute Workout DVDs

Fast-food giant, McDonald’s, the creator of such jaw-dropping concoctions as the Angus Burger and the McRib Sandwich, has gone to a few commendable lengths in the past few years to lighten up their image among health-minded customers and nutrition experts. In addition to low-fat yogurt parfaits and apple wedges, they have also quietly added fitness to their menu of offerings.

In 2006, McDonald’s launched a series of workout DVDs called McDonald’s 15-Minute Workouts. Not much publicity was generated around the DVDs unless you happen to buy one of the Golden Arches’ premium salads and a drink. Then, you received one DVD for free. The DVDs were part of the company’s GoActive! Happy Meal for Adults campaign.

Today, the DVDs are no longer handed out alongside your plastic salad fork, but they are still floating around certain retail stores in cyberspace. (more…)

Posted on November 8, 2024 by heather

L.A. Unified School District Declines Help from Jamie Oliver

Watching every episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution certainly sparked something in me to feed my children healthier meals. I have wished to have Oliver work in the school kitchens in my city, to help others see that the food choices they make for students have room for improvement. If that chance was offered to my city, I’d really hope that those in charge would accept the offer.

Not so for the Los Angeles Unified School District. They were offered a spot on the second season of The Food Revolution and turned it down.

Jamie Oliver’s first season of Food Revolution took on the city of Huntington, West Virginia, a city with the reputation for being “America’s Fattest City“. Oliver was met with criticism and outright hostility, although he was ultimately welcomed by those who were his biggest enemies. Now, in his second season, he has decided to take on the city of Los Angeles – the second largest city in America, and not just in population. It’s a great idea, except that the Unified School District wants no part of his plan. (more…)

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Carmen

The Real Origins of the McRib Sandwich

McRib pigThe McRib sandwich from McDonald’s is a strange product of the food science world: fake “ribs” molded out of mystery pork and drowning in sauce. First McDonald’s created the “Boneless Pig Farmers Association of America” spoof. Now, the fast food chain is running a campaign to get customers to submit a video with a “legendary” creation story of the McRib sandwich. The winner will receive $10,000 dollars and a trip to Germany. The fact that McDonald’s is making fun of the nebulous origins of its food is borderline offensive to anyone who would like there to be some transparency in our food chain.

Well, OK, McDonald’s, we’ll tell you where the McRib comes from: an enormous factory farm. A giant shed with a floor covered in feces, where tens of thousands of pigs will be born without ever having enough space to turn around in and most will never see daylight. Let’s remember that, unlike a chicken, a pig has fairly advanced mental capacities, much like your pet dog. Because these pigs live in such tight quarters, they tend to develop bizarre behaviors due to stress. The animals, taken away from their mothers shortly after birth, nibble on each other’s tails because they are not allowed to wean. The pig having its tail nibbled is too apathetic to fight or object, but the chewed tails are likely to be infected. The solution? All the pigs get their tails cut off at birth. I’ll spare you a description of a slaughter. A typical slaughterhouse kills up to 1,100 pigs per hour, according to PETA.

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Posted on November 5, 2024 by Margaret

Will Vet Students Endanger Our Food Safety?

livestockOfficials are worried that there will be a shortage of veterinarians trained to work on farms in the near future. A more large-animal veterinarians will be retiring than there will be new vets entering the field, as more veterinary students choose to work with household pets. A recent survey revealed that only two percent of veterinary school students plan to work with non-pet animals, and only anther seven percent so much as receive training to handle large animals.

Farm veterinarians play a key role in keeping livestock healthy, and serve as inspectors at ranches and slaughterhouses. “They’re basically on the front line when it comes to maintaining a safe food supply,” David Kirkpatrick told USA Today. “Not only in the U.S., but in products we export. Vets diagnose diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans.” Kirkpatrick is a spokes person for the American Veterinary Medical Association.

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Posted on November 5, 2024 by Health Buzz

Are Inhalable Vitamins the Wave of the Future?

If you’re like most people, you probably take a multivitamin or some sort of supplementation in pill form. After all, most of us don’t eat perfectly all the time. But, if you’re like me, and tend to get nauseous from taking a supplement (even with a full meal and plenty of water), you know how miserable taking anything in pill form can be. That’s why when I saw a new type of inhalable vitamin in Popular Science magazine, I was kind of pumped. No more horse pills? Sign me up!

Now the new technology isn’t fully proven or studied by an independent source, but the manufacturer of LeWhif Vitamin says that eight “hits” of its Breathable Vitamins supplies 100 percent of the daily recommended amount of A, B1, B2, B3 and B5. Inhaling the vitamins — instead of digesting them — allows the vitamins to be delivered straight through the bloodstream and therefore in a more efficient and concentrated manner. (more…)

Posted on November 5, 2024 by Jennipher

How to Eat Locally

BerriesWhile much attention is paid to the environmental benefits of organic produce, the local food movement is starting to also make real headway. No matter how your food is grown, if it’s shipped from across the U.S. or even from another country, that’s a long way for your food to travel.

Locally grown foods are fresher because they don’t have to be picked before they’re ripe for shipping, and are less likely to be subjected to different means of preserving freshness. Many fruits and vegetables must stay in refrigerated trucks, which increases the amount of energy the trucks consume.

While there are some extreme locavores out there, introducing more local food into your diet isn’t as hard as it seems. Plus, eating locally puts more emphasis on eating fresh, non-processed foods that will benefit anyone trying to lose weight. When you eat locally, you’re also supporting the local economy. Here are a few simple ways to eat local.

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Posted on November 4, 2024 by Margaret

RECALL: Celery from SanGar Fresh Cut

CeleryThe FDA said yesterday that listeria has been found in a now closed food precessing plant in Texas. The Texas Department of State Health found the bacteria in chopped celery, leading to an order to close the plant on October 10th, and recall all food shipped from the plant since January.

A spokesperson for the department said that four people have died from listeriosis after eating celery that had been processed by the SanGar plant. Authorities are investigating a total of 10 cases over the past eight months. CNN reports that the FDA found the bacteria in multiple locations within the plant, and the samples “matches the DNA fingerprint of the clinical cases of listeriosis reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services.”

SanGar says they hired an independent service to test the plant, and that those results came back negative. “The FDA and the state have not turned over to us the documentation supporting their findings,” SanGar attorney Jason Galvan said. “We cannot comment on these most recent findings until the documentation is provided for independent evaluation by our experts.” He also says the entire facility has been cleaned. The company hopes it can go back into production soon.

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Posted on November 4, 2024 by Health Buzz

Potato Primer: 4 Healthy Ways to Prep Potatoes

You know you can mash them with cream and butter. You’ve heard of au gratin – butter and cheese. But did you know that there are plenty of ways to prepare everyone’s favorite starchy vegetable without added fat and calories?

Despite their reputation as diet delinquents, potatoes can actually be a healthy side dish, especially in the winter when people tend to crave comfort and carbohydrates. Instead of letting them derail your healthy eating plans, learn how to prepare them so that they can be part of your healthy, balanced diet. (more…)

Posted on November 4, 2024 by Maris

Weight Watchers to Change POINTS System

The research on weight-loss, exercise and proper diet just keeps expanding every day. There’s no doubt that what we believed 10 years ago (fats bad, non-fat products good!) is drastically different than what we believe now (good fats good, high sugar bad!), and it’s probably safe to say that in another 10 years we’ll have an even better understanding of how lifestyle affects our health. In an effort to stay updated on the weight-loss research, Weight Watchers in the United Kingdom recently unveiled a new POINTS system and, according to CNN, the United States isn’t far behind in doing so, too. (more…)

Posted on November 4, 2024 by Jennipher