In this study, eating lunch in front of the computer led to negative outcomes.  Subjects again ate more later in the day.

"Distracted individuals were less full after lunch, and they ate significantly more biscuits in the taste test than did nondistracted participants."

"These findings provide further evidence that distraction during one meal has the capacity to influence subsequent eating. They may also help to explain the well-documented association between sedentary screen-time activities and overweight."

Following up on the last post, this study shows that eating in front of the tv leads to problems as well.  One group ate lunch in front of the tv while the other did not (same meal).  The group that watched tv ended up consuming more calories later on:

"These results suggest that the effects of television watching on food intake extend beyond the time of television watching to affect subsequent consumption. They further suggest that this effect may be related to an effect of television watching on encoding of the memory of the meal."

I saw a newer study on television time and mortality.  Here is the frightening conclusion:

"On average, every single hour of TV viewed after the age of 25 reduces the viewer's life expectancy by 21.8 (95% UI: 0.3-44.7) min. This study is limited by the low precision with which the relationship between TV viewing time and mortality is currently known. Conclusions TV viewing time may be associated with a loss of life that is comparable to other major chronic disease risk factors such as physical inactivity and obesity."

Wow!  Who knows if the exact estimate is correct or not, but this suggests television viewing has a huge negative impact on health.

And I would think the new crop of large flat-screen tvs will only make this problem worse.

 

Hey there! Just wanted to let y’all know about an upcoming talk I’ll be giving to the Evolutionary Biology Department at SUNY New Paltz. Here is the pertinent info: When: Monday, Feb 27th 5:30-630 pm (reception and book signing to follow) Where: Lecture Center 100, SUNY New Paltz Campus Who Can attend? Anyone! Read more...

This week I received an email from a current dietetic student wondering how it is ‘possible’ to be a Paleo  dietitian and promote the lifestyle, even though it doesn’t exactly ‘jive’ with the USDA Food Plate and dietary guidelines.  I often receive emails and inquiries like this from students, current registered dietitians, Read more...

Disclaimer: This article will be talking obliquely about pornography and may possibly contain tasteless jokes. If those kinds of things bother you then please do not read this article. My Goal: To make junk food as unappealing as possible. I watched the following movies as research for this article: The Read more...

I got a hold of that paper I mentioned a few days ago, and it's a dandy. It shows how the increase in added fats and sugars parallels the rise in obesity. The article actually tests three different hypotheses in the article: is the increase in BMI due to:

1) more fat

2) more sugar

3) more sugar and fat in combination

Both fat and sugar separately have high correlations with the increase in BMI, but fat and sugar together take the cake (pun intended!).  Here's the graph:

 

They are getting R-squared's of 0.96, which is very high.  Here's a few highlights from the paper:

"Other foods available for consumption such as dairy products, meat and eggs, vegetables, grains, and fruits were used as covariates along with fat and sugar production in multivariate regression analysis for male (female) BMI. For men, fat and sugar accounted for 96% of total variability in BMI (P < 0.001) with vegetables adding 1.5% (P < 0.001). For women, fat and sugar accounted for 97% of total variability (P < 0.001) with dairy (P = 0.0034), vegetables (P = 0.0145), and grains (P = 0.0191) each adding less than 1% to the total variability. Interestingly, dairy was negatively correlated with BMI (r = −0.86 and r = −0.90 for males and females BMI, respectively)."

In other words, they looked at the different food groups, but it was the added fat and sugar that was the primary determinant (like I mentioned in a previous post).

"The palatability hypothesis therefore predicts that increases in BMI are not due to calories per se in the drive system, but rather the increases are due to high levels of palatability that increase calorie consumption through increased stimulation of the incentive system. This leads to the hypothesis that the increased production of the additives of fat and sugar in combination would be most responsible for increased palatability and would therefore also provide the best mathematical fit for increases in calorie production and BMI over the last 30 years."

Here they are focusing on how fat and sugar in combination can produce palatable, addictive food.

I've been reading through a USDA publication, " Profiling Food Consumption in America(pdf)".  It shows the general increase in food consumption over the past 50 years.

What's amazing is that consumption of almost everything has gone up: meats, fruits, vegetables, added fats, grains, and sugars.  Take meat consumption for example.  Here's the table:

(click to enlarge)

It shows an annual increase of 55 pounds of meat per person.  What's driving this increase?  I find it hard to believe that people were meat-deprived in the 1950s.

Most likely, I think that the increase in meat (particulary chicken) is driven by the processing of chicken - adding breading, fat, dipping sauces, etc.  It may be that these added ingredients are driving the consumption of chicken (or other food groups for that matter) rather than an actual increase in the need for animal protein.

HEY!  Vote Paleo the “Best Diet of 2012″ at Outside.com  Go to the bottom, left-hand side of the page.   Download Episode Here   Topics: [5:11] Green Beans and Autoimmunity [9:07] Jack Kruse’s Leptin Reset [15:54] Becoming Batman [34:01] Cortisol and Morning People [36:57] Vericose Veins [40:46] Phytic Acid and Read more...

By: Charlie Barker In 2008 I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis after a flare-up that left me very anaemic and lasted 4 months. I was prescribed steroids, which worked, and put on mesalazine long term. I thought it was all sorted, when I got another flare up about a year Read more...

I thought this looked like an interesting study.  It shows how different people are either hyper or hypo-sensitive to fat intake.  From the abstract:

"Hyposensitive subjects consumed significantly more energy, fat, saturated fat, fatty foods (butter, meat, dairy), had greater BMI and were less perceptive of small changes in the fat content of custard (all P < 0.05), compared to hypersensitive subjects."

"An inability to perceive low concentrations of fatty acids in foods was associated with greater consumption of fatty foods, specifically butter, meat, dairy, and increasing BMI."

My guess is a constant supply of high-fat food (like fast food) may dull the taste receptors for fat in some people.

I'm waiting to get the full-text of this article, "Why Has the BMI Gone Up So Drastically in the Last 35 Years?", that looks promising.  From the abstract:

"The additives of fats and sugars in combination, not separately, best predicted increases in BMI accounting for 97% of the variance in the linear regression analyses."

97% is obviously very high!

"In line with the major physiological theories emphasizing palatability as the addictive stimulus in models of incentives and addiction, fats and sugars in combination rather than calories per se or particular food groups accounted for the increases in BMI."

I was looking through an interesting study on Korean centenarians today.  The full-text is here(pdf).

Here is table showing the nutritional intake:

 

Does anyone look at this stuff when they recommend low-carb, high-fat for longevity and health?  Here you have a group of centenarians consuming well over 200 grams of carbs per day, along with a fairly low fat intake, and they seem to be doing just fine.

Also, this study is on a group of 54 centenarians, not just an individual case.  Is there any kind of comparable study showing a large group of low-carb, high-fat centenarians?  Not that I'm aware of. (Note: a newspaper article saying how someone loved bacon and lived to be 105 is not a study.)

By: Roman Sasik, Ph.D. Chlorella is a genus of unicellular aquatic organisms that recently acquired a “superfood” status, in part because of its complete amino acid profile and a high omega-3 DHA and EPA fatty acid content. It has also been reported to lower blood pressure in humans, lower serum Read more...

Scattergories, Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, Scrabble, Uno…  We all like games!  They’re fun, a distraction and if you ‘play your cards’ right you may end up with some gloating rights or even a monetary reward.  But there is one game, one we all play or have played at some point Read more...

Download Episode Here Download a transcript of this episode Features guest Michael Rutherford ME Black Box articles here

Day eight of Paleo and I’m staying strong!   And look at that number!  Who lost three pounds this week?  Oh, that would be me!   I had a hectic weekend, so the last four days I am combining into one post so I can get it all on the blog for everyone to read.

I’m having some hearing problems – probably a wacky complication to my surgery for Cushing’s Disease – so I slept through  my alarm on Friday.  That got me off on the wrong foot, and I didn’t have the time I needed to make breakfast.  I seriously had the thought “I’ll just grab something from downstairs,”  meaning a muffin or instant oatmeal or something, but then I said “NO!  You will NOT!” and I scrambled some eggs, put them in one of my Pampered Chef Prep Bowls, poured a tablespoon of olive oil into another, grabbed a 1/2 an avocado, and my Pampered Chef small-micro-cooker, and ran out the door.

I walk to and from work, and even though it’s not too far, I really enjoy it.  It gives me time to get my head screwed on straight for work, and breathing in the fresh air after work isn’t too shabby, either.  By the time I get home, I’m almost 100% relaxed.

When I got to work, I went into the break  room to prepare my breakfast.  I microwaved the eggs and avocado with the olive oil, and then had some blueberries and strawberries.  It turned out colorful and  yummy.  One of my co-workers saw me making my breakfast and asked me all kinds of questions.  I felt really accomplished (and very proud of myself for denying the power of a blueberry muffin!).

For lunch, I brought my leftovers from dinner on Thursday night, which was a green curry with beef that I made for my friend and me.  I’ve challenged her to a weight loss goal (with the promise of her first trip to London as her reward) so she welcomed the healthy dinner.  And she’d never had green curry, so she was brave to try a new dish.  She also took pictures of me for my private use.  I do NOT like to look at myself naked.  I get depressed and eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s if I do.  I just hate looking at what this disease has done to me. But again, I have to own it, embrace it, and get it in my head that this is the biggest I will ever be.  And once I lose the weight, I’m sure it will be mind-boggling to look at the pictures and see how much I’ve changed.  The proof, as they say, is always in the pudding.  I put on some swimsuit bottoms on (another thing that I do about as much as I vote Republican) and a sports bra, and posed for the camera.  Got a front shot, pics of both sides, and my wide behind.  Holy crap.  I know I have a big butt, but Lord have mercy.  That’s what we here in the South call a ba-donk-a-donk.

I ended up not eating the leftovers for lunch, though, as a co-worker was having a crap day, so we went out for lunch instead.  We went to Panera, but I surprised myself when I behaved so well.  I ordered a Mediterranean Salmon salad (no feta) and an apple, and some green tea.   I took my leftovers home and warmed them up while I packed in a hurry for my weekend trip to Knoxville to see my bestie and volunteer for the Extreme Home Makeover build.  I ate them on the way so I wouldn’t pull over and buy a Big Mac at McDonald’s (and I don’t even like them!).

Saturday started out okay.  My bestie Heather is on a completely opposite diet from me:  vegetarian.  She eats beans and grains and dairy, and well, I don’t.  So we ordered breakfast from Cracker Barrel, and I had two scrambled eggs and some bacon.  I did get a coffee from Starbucks, because I needed caffeine to wrap my head around the fact that we were about to help build a house.  But at least it was skinny and sugar-free?  And, I confess, I had a biscuit.  The true test of a southern girl trying to diet is resisting a fluffy biscuit.  I caved.  But I’m not ashamed.

I think all the walking through mud and lifting more than made up for my biscuit slip-up.  I did well throughout the day, eating an apple for a snack and a mostly-Paleo lunch.  I had carrots and potatoes and London broil, and some asparagus and steamed spinach.  But I also had three pieces of caprese salad with mozzarella.  Whoops.

When it slowed down a bit, that’s when things got dangerous.  There was no shortage of goodies to feed the troops, including cookies and cupcakes and chips and soft drinks.  All of the food dangers that are killing us all slowly but surely. I did cave and eat a chocolate cookie – it was Otis Spunkmeyer.  I have no willpower with Mr. Spunkmeyer.  But it pleased me to see it just didn’t satisfy me like I wanted.  I ate it, but my body just didn’t like it.  Someone also brought cupcakes in from a local bakery.  I’m not usually a huge cupcake fan.  The frosting is just too rich for me.  But they had mint chocolate chip ones, so I tried one.  I barely made it through a quarter of it.  It just didn’t taste right.  Again, my body didn’t want it.  So, even though I ate non-Paleo foods, I consider it a success in that my body is figuring out what it wants and needs.

The build tired both us and our muscles and we wanted to sleep in, but we got up and went to church instead.  I had some coffee and an apple on the way, and then we went to a Mexican restaurant.  Again, that would usually be a minefield for me, where I inevitably blow up my diet with those sneaky baskets of tortilla chips, but I held down the digestive fort and didn’t eat any.  I ordered chicken fajitas, and double salad instead of rice and beans.  I was super satisfied and took a long nap after that.  We got up and piddled around until we went to see a touring production of Les Miserables.  It was awesome, but it got out too late to eat dinner.  Literally, everything in downtown Knoxville closes early on Sunday except for bars.  So my biggest slip up of the weekend was at a brewery downtown because at ten o’clock, 8 hours after last eating. Famished,  I had a 1/4 of a beer and a buffalo chicken wrap.

Today, we slept in really late, and having eaten so late last night, we didn’t eat until early afternoon.  We went to Nama Sushi Bar, and I had some seaweed salad, and one sushi roll with seared tuna, whitefish, avocado and crab.  So yes, I had rice, but only a little.

The drive home was tiring, but I went to an in-store performance of an artist I love, and then went grocery shopping.  I was hungry, but I passed right by all the fast food options and whipped up some quick eggs when I got home.  So I’m stocked up on goodies for Week Two of my Paleo diet, and this time I didn’t cave and buy any Greek yogurt!

I’ve also consulted my long-time friend Kerry, whom I affectionately called Kiery, for some tips and techniques.  She is also adopting the Paleo lifestyle and has had impressive success since starting.  I plan on researching all the information she sent my way so I can get back on track and become completely Paleo.

So I had a few slip-ups this week, but not many.  And I’m down three pounds.  Yeehaw!!!  I’m pretty stoked.

Now, on to Week Two…

Today was better. (Insert roaring applause!!!)

This may be a bit overstated...

I awoke VERY hungry…but, hey, I slept until 12:30 p.m. and hadn’t eaten since the night before.

Breakfast is still a challenge for me. I cannot fathom eating a vegetable with breakfast. So, again, I just had sausage and eggs. I was still quite hungry after breakfast but made myself subsist on only water for a couple hours.

Also, I likely had too much almond butter and too many nuts between meals again today. I have a grocery list prepared that contains lots of meats I can eat for snacks. I hope to make it to Whole Foods to buy these items tomorrow.

For lunch (which, I guess, was a midday meal, considering I ate breakfast at nearly 1 p.m.), I had leftover beef roast, with onions and peppers (“cooked to death,” just the way I like them).

After that meal, I still felt hungry, just as I had after breakfast. I caved a little. I had a cup of coffee with almond milk (thankfully, this is not a blatant cheat and just cost my 1 of my 11 points).

5:30 p.m., workout time. I was a little concerned I’d be too weak to WOD. However, I did manage a short strength session and benchmark WOD, “Cindy” without keeling over. I did feel the effects of the challenge, however (I was weaker than usual).

I conquered "Cindy"

After the WOD, we came home to finish prepping dinner. I was pretty darn hungry. So, I had nuts and hot tea before AND after our meal of pork roast, green beans, and steamed cauliflower (that last item was just for Derek).

It’s now 9:35 p.m. and I’m preparing for bed (as soon as I finish blogging, of course). I’m finishing up my last cup of tea and, thankfully, won’t go to bed hungry.

ALSO…………………

On a more exciting (a.k.a, more readable) note, I’m making progress in the gym.

When I take a small step in the right direction, I always like to remember where I started. I like to say I was in a fitness crater…or that I was sinking in quicksand. Pulling oneself out of something like that is quite a task.

I was sinking into a hole...filled with doughnuts, Cab. Sav., and lattes.

Being in that kind of hole makes CrossFitting more than tough. However, in my mind, it was invigorating (still challenging but invigorating).

Soooo, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to insert my pull-up progression into this blog. Finally, tonight presents that opportunity.

Saying bye bye to the once coveted green band

At just over 170 lbs. (you’ll learn I am NOT ashamed of my weight….not after hitting 200 lbs. earlier this year), I’m thinking purple + red is pretty darn impressive!!

Finally, behind the neck push presses have always challenged me. Last summer, I couldn’t do this at 45#. In October, I couldn’t get a full extension at 55#. Tonight, I am pysched to say I did two sets of 3 at 65#.

I L-O-V-E progress!!!!

Here’s to more of the same…and to an even better day on the challenge tomorrow. 11 points today.

Thanks for reading!

P.S., Derek ended the day with 12 points!!! We would elaborate on that more if he would contribute some to this blog. In the meantime, we’ll keep talking about yours truly ; ).

–Sam

My diet was this before, but I decided to change it as I continuously learned about Intermittent Fasting. I’m following Martin Berkhan on the 16 hour fasting / 8 hours eating rule. 

Firstly, I don’t think I really ever woke up at 7 am to run. Usually my morning run started at 10am, but it was still all shifted apart like I had planned, but just started 3 hours later than planned into the morning.

I wanted to still follow the workout regimen, unfortunately I thought it was a great idea to sprain my ankle while playing basketball and go on a small vacation for New Years, which set me back on my goal a bit, but no matter – I moved forward and just extended the workout a week.

Circuits workout – Tuesday, Thursday,  Saturday

Morning run        –  every day (had to cease this after ankle sprain)

Afternoon workout – Tuesday, Wednesday… Friday,

Sunday – Yoga in the afternoon

10:00 am one serving bcass followed by morning run. 30-45 mins 3-4 miles at a constant rate.

12:00-12:30 am meal. – 1 cup Fage Greek yogurt  23gs protein per serving 130 cals

½ cup low-fat cottage cheese 14gs protein  100 cals

Quaker oats don’t go over 30 grams carbs 1 serving

One serving bcaas.

3:00 pm       – workout lift normal  full one body part area heavy 12-10-8-6 sets or 5 sets of 5 or lift to maximum – I continuously changed it up

4:30ish           -Post workout shake: 32 Grams protein shake 10 gram glutamine

-Half apple OR half orange

5:30  —  Tuna can. ¼ cup cooked brown rice, salad – 45 grams protein 30 grams carbs about 300 calories total

6:30 –  take one protein shake w/ 5 grams glutamine other half of apple OR orange

7:30 – Chipotle style chicken salad OR the tuna salad again OR some other type chicken/fish salad  300 calories about 45 grams protein

8:30 workout – circuits light legs. (similar to Crossfit workouts)

Post workout meal – protein shake with 5 grams glutamine and Half Apple

##################################################################################

The ideal goal is to keep all my food intake within an 8-9 hour time-frame and fast for the remainder of the 24 hours in a day. This has worked tremendously and something I’ll consider doing even after I finish this intense diet/workout regimen. It’s actually not too bad either because I’m sleeping for half the fasting hours.

Today’s post on “The Pursuit of Paleo” will explain, very simply, the impact that foods will have on our ingrained “nutritional teeter-totter” (I hope Nicole Carroll of CFHQ didn’t patent/copyright that term in her speech about it! At least I’ll reference you guys to my favorite “Paleo” video of all-time. Part 1 is here. Here’s Part 2). Any food that you put in your body will have some sort of effect on your “PH scale” (rated from a score of “0″ for Acid to 14 for Alkaline).

This short video does a great job of explaining how, and WHY, the human body needs to maintain a balance for us to stay healthy, and briefly lists some of the major consequences of what happens when either that balance is lost, or when the body needs to work extra hard to maintain it. Imbalances in this scale (as stated in the video) usually stem from the over-consumption of acid-forming foods and beverages, and unhealthy stress in our lives.

From the video:
“Another general rule is the more processed the food, the more acidic it will be.” Hmm… where have we heard that before?

However, while too much acidity in our diet is definitely bad for us, just because a food is acidic does NOT mean it’s bad for you! It’s all about the balance and the QUALITY of the food we eat.

***Let me note, the video featured in this is not a post that focuses on a “pro-paleo” position. I don’t want to incorrectly give that impression.***

What I’m suggesting, is that by being more aware of what we put into our bodies, by learning about the impact that foods have on our “PH balance” as humans AND by following a nutritional guideline of “meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar,” (taken from CrossFit.com) that we will be healthier.

Period.

Education is power, so hopefully I’m dropping some knowledge on you guys and gals.

Enjoy. (Thanks for sharing this video, Trish!)