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If You’re Already a Couch Potato, Why Not Go All the Way?

Last week, we posted about a nutritionist who, to make a point, went on a diet of nothing but junk food, albeit in rigidly limited amounts, for two months, and wound up losing weight. This week, our subject is Chris Voigt of the state of Washington, who recently went on a two-month diet of nothing but potatoes. Okay, he used seasonings, your herbs and cinnamon and bouillon cube gravy, but other than that, it was just potatoes. Mashed, baked, sliced and fried, roasted, deep-fried, cubed and shoestringed… potatoes.

Voigt put away roughly 20 potatoes per day for 60 straight days, some 400 pounds in all. And at the end he had lost weight — down from 197 pounds to 176 — while reducing his blood sugar and slashing his cholesterol by more than 30 percent. The problem with the all-potato diet, of course, is the same as with the junk food diet: if you maintained it for any serious length of time, it would probably land you in the hospital, or worse.

All we learn from these dietary escapades is that you can lose weight either by eating a very limited amount of whatever you want or by eating an unlimited amount of a starchy root vegetable so bland that you will soon be mortally sick of it. Unfortunately, with either ploy, your body will soon be deficient in all manner of fairly important nutrients.

In sum, the potato diet may work short-term, but you’d have to be crazy to try it. Or, as is the case with Chris Voigt, you’d have to be the executive director of the Washington State Potato Commission, a job we are vastly grateful that he has and we don’t.

“Get Fat or Get Taken” is Not a Reasonable Choice

In possibly the dumbest collegiate eating fad since live goldfish, a student at the University of Maryland has founded what is apparently the first official major college competitive eating club. The club’s rules and regulations are still rather a work in progress, but the founder hopes to inspire the creation of similar clubs at other colleges, the ultimate goal being intercollegiate chow-down contests, culminating presumably in championship Food Bowls. That’s an understandable goal — it’s hard to have a competitive club without any competitors — but it threatens to turn the legendary Freshman 15 into a three-digit figure.

This is still mostly a tongue-in-cheek news item, but if it turns into something bigger and more widespread, the University of Maryland will be partly to blame for it. That’s because the school’s student meal contracts have expiration dates, beyond which any unused points are worthless, creating an incentive for students to pig out as the deadline nears rather than waste food money. The competitive eating club was a way to lend a kind of mock legitimacy to the phenomenon.

Since binge eating is one of the least healthy habits that college kids can acquire, and since use-it-or-lose-it rules encourage binge eating, schools who offer such eating plans may want to rethink the terms of the agreement.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

The Insane All-Potato Diet, and the Problem With College Students’ Eating Contracts is a post from: CalorieLab

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Wanting to provide help to our dieting readers, I decided to pursue an investigation to discover the best diet to follow for weight loss. Because of the importance of avoiding a conflict of interest, I did not include my personal favorite: The Dr. J very hard diet.

The studies:

The first study I looked at was the now classic “Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction, A Randomized Trial” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January, 2005.

The results of Atkins vs. Ornish vs. Weight Watchers vs. Zone:

The average weight loss at one year was 10.56 lbs for Atkins, with 53 percent completing the study, 13.2 lbs for Zone with 65 percent completing the study. 10.78 lbs for Weight Watchers with 65 percent completing the study, and 16.06 lbs for Ornish with 50 percent completing the study.

Each diet in the study modestly reduced body weight at one year. The low rate of people who stayed with their particular diet for the entire year had the greatest weight loss in each group. In my opinion, if this was a horse race, the betters would be waiting for the results of the photo to see who was the winner at the finish.

Four Diets With Different Calorie/Fat/Protein/Carb Ratios

I then looked at a study that compared the possible advantage for weight loss with plans that varied the combinations of protein, fat, and carbohydrates in the prescribed diet.
“>This research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February 2009.

The researchers randomly assigned 811 overweight adults to one of four diets. The calories derived from fat, protein, and carbohydrates in the four diets were 20, 15, and six percent; 20, 25, and 55 percent; 40, 15, and 45 percent; and 40, 25, and 35 percent. All the diets consisted of similar food items. In addition, the dieters were offered group and individual instructional sessions for two years.

The results:

At six months, the dieters had lost an average of 13.2 lbs, or seven percent of their initial weight. The study groups began to regain weight after 12 months. The researchers felt that each reduced calorie diet resulted in a similar weight loss regardless of which macronutrient combination was used. Seems like another photo finish to me.

Pre-Prepared and Supplied Meal Substitute Diet

Lastly, I considered two just-published clinical trials of a commercial pre-prepared and supplied meal substitute that claimed to demonstrate effective weight loss strategies for obese and overweight adults.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, in a one-year intensive lifestyle intervention study of diet and physical activity, had 130 severely obese adult individuals follow one of two dietary plans. One group did a prescribed diet and physical activity for the entire 12 months, while the other group had the identical dietary intervention, but with physical activity delayed for six months.

“To facilitate dietary compliance and improve weight loss, liquid and pre-packaged meal replacements were provided at no cost for all but one meal per day during months one through three and for only one meal replacement per day during months four through six of the intervention,” the authors reported. In addition, small financial incentives were provided. The participants also received a combination of group, individual and telephone contacts as part of the program.

The results:

The group that started with the diet and physical activity lost more weight in the first six months than the delayed-activity group; however, the approximately 25 pound weight loss at 12 months was about the same in both groups. 78 percent completed the study.

2-Year Women’s Lifestyle Intervention Diet

In the second study, researchers from Moores UCSD Cancer Center, La Jolla, California, conducted a randomized controlled trial of weight loss and weight maintenance in 442 overweight or obese women over a two year period.

The women were divided into three intervention groups: in-person, or telephone-based weekly one-to-one weight loss counseling, including free-of-charge prepackaged prepared foods and increased physical activity for 30 minutes a day, five days a week. The participants were eventually transitioned to a meal plan. The third group was the usual care group who received two individualized weight loss counseling sessions with a dietetics professional and monthly contacts. All participants were provided a small monetary compensation ($25) for each completed clinic visit.

The results, after two years:

At 24 months, 92.1 percent had completed the study. The average weight loss for the women participating in the center-based group was about 16 pounds or 7.9 percent of their initial weight, about 14 pounds or 6.8 percent for the telephone-based group, and about 4.5 pounds for the usual care control group.

“Findings from this study suggest that this incentivized structured weight loss program with free prepared meals can effectively promote weight loss compared with usual care group,” reported the possibly incentivized researchers.

The researchers claim that lifestyle interventions, including physical activity and structured weight loss programs, can result in weight loss for overweight, obese and severely obese adults. (And it also helps if you supply free meals and pay them.)

My results:

From what I can tell, it doesn’t matter which standard, well designed, non-fad diet you pick, each one of them in these studies gives comparable results. If you comply with the diet and do the math, you will lose weight. However, the amount of weight lost was, in my opinion, not very much.

Discussion:

I am concerned with this lowering of performance standards for weight loss. Even though all of these diets claim to work, I think the results are nowhere near impressive. Most of these diets basically enabled the dieter to lose less than 10 percent of their body weight in a year, and maintain a five percent loss in two years, unless free meals were supplied, the participants were paid, and intensive support and counseling was done.

In the morbidly obese individual, going from 300 to 280 pounds is almost meaningless from a health and wellness standpoint. Except in the first study, where the term modest was used, the researchers were proclaiming the successful amount of weight loss of the participants. In some ways, I feel this is a form of denial of the real goal they claim to be advocating.

Although some people may choose to interpret these results with the “diets do not work,” mantra, I do not see it that way. Other than the last two studies where the participants were given free food and also paid to lose weight, almost 50 percent of the dieters did not maintain the dietary constraint and commitment for anywhere near the length of the studies. It isn’t that diets do not work, it’s that people will not do the work. Many of you either read websites about individuals, or are individuals who have done a much more impressive job of becoming a healthy weight. These people applied the math. They used a plan of calorie-availability versus calorie-utilization. My thanks to all of you who have proved that it can be done and for reaching out to help others in their successes.

In the end, the best diet to follow is one that you will stick with. If it is a matter of finding what works for you, it doesn‘t really matter which diet you pick, what matters is which diet you will do.

Dr. J Advises on the Best Diet to Follow for Weight Loss is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

A form of sugar called trehalose that shows up on food ingredient lists in Japan may be set to appear on food labels in the United States, and a controversy resembling that over HFCS could erupt, despite determinations by government oversight bodies that the product is completely safe.

Besides Japan trehalose is also coming into more widespread use in various European countries. Although it’s not yet common in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has accepted without objection the manufacturer’s claim that trehalose is “generally accepted as safe” (GRAS).

GRAS foods are exempt from the usual legal food additive requirements. In 1983 the FDA accepted another sweetener, high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as GRAS, and today the controversial sweetener is as ubiquitous on United States packaged food labels as trehalose currently is on Japanese food labels. Will the GRAS classification of trehalose ultimately result in its use in the United States market in a big way? We don’t know, but it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Japanese Food Additive May Invade the United States

Like HFCS, trehalose is a natural substance, found in mushrooms like shiitake, some sea algae, and sunflower seeds, as well as shrimp and various insects. The blood sugar of bees consists of trehalose. However, extracting it in industrial quantities was prohibitively expensive until the Hayashibara company in Okayama, Japan, invented a way to make it in bulk by adding enzymes to starch.

Trehalose has several properties that are attractive to food manufactures, and Hayashibara began to market it to them as the “natural miracle.” It has a mild, sweet flavor that doesn’t interfere with a product’s basic taste, yet it acts as a preservative, a water-retaining texturizer, and a suppressant of off flavors and odors. It can also be used to partially replace conventional sugars.

And Hayashibara hasn’t limited itself to food. They have successfully sold trehalose for use as a fabric deodorizer, a moisturizer, and a medical solution ingredient.

As an example of the use of trehalose in foods, the Japanese snack company Glico sells a crispy snack cracker called Cheeza. More than half of a Cheeza crackes by weight is chedder cheese power, with trehalose coming in second on the list, then some oil and various flavorings and coloring. Cheeza contains no wheat flour or similar ingredient, yet somehow a cracker can be made from cheese, trehalose, and oil.

The Sweetener Controversy to follow HFCS?

If trehalose enters the United States market in a big way, Hayashibara may discover Americans innate paranoia about eating foods containing anything with a “chemically” sounding name, however natural it is. “Trehalose” is not destined to be an easy marketing sell, and the name alone may be putting off American food manufacturers. (Another theory is that American food additive companies are waiting for Hayashibara’s patents to expire before making it themselves domestically.)

Although Japanese soccer moms don’t check food labels for trehalose as obessively as their American counterparts do for HFCS, Google Suggest offers “trehalose dangers” (in Japanese) as a search suggestion when searching for trehalose information on the Japanese web, and some sites discuss concerns.?Hayashibara has taken preemptive action with a consumer facing trehalose website, an irritable phallic mascot character from outer space named “Treha,” and television commercials promoting the substance and safe and nutritious.

If trehalose ever begins to show up on ingredient labels in a big way in the United States, we can predict with a certain amount of confidence that the health danger conspiracy theories will not be far behind on the internet. Although it comes too late to be blamed for the obesity crisis and autism, we’re sure that some malady will be found to pin on it.

Japan’s Trehalose: Coming Soon to a Packaged Food Ingredient List Near You is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

Sort of a Hoagie From Hell

Maybe it has to do with the Equinox, the passage into Autumn, the shortening of the daylight, or just something in the air, but for some reason, September seems to bring out a bit more of the crazy in the food preparation industry than your average month. This September was certainly no exception.

Start with a new item from the folks at Carl’s Jr. (out West, that is, but Hardee’s in the South and East): the Foot-Long Cheeseburger. It’s basically just three ordinary cheeseburgers laid end to end on a foot-long sub roll, and if the 850 calories it packs aren’t enough of an affront to nutritional science, you have to pony up an extra half a buck just to get lettuce and tomato added. So far it’s only available in California, but it if works there, it goes national. Don’t bet against it.

Please, Please Hold the Anchovies

Then there’s Domino’s, which has decided that pizza for breakfast is no longer just for hungover college guys who prefer cold leftovers to actually preparing something. What they call the Breakfast Pizza starts with the basic dough and cheese and then tosses on a few eggs, sunny side up, to be topped with the pizza usuals: sausage, bacon, onions, peppers, and so forth. “It’s like quiche on a pizza crust,” says one franchise owner. Who hasn’t yearned for that combination all their life? Why Domino’s doesn’t hold the dough and just call it an omelet is unclear. As of now, you can only get one of these freaks at a Domino’s in Dayton, Ohio, but it sounds just preposterous enough to take off.

A Teaser

And finally, September is the month of the Texas State Fair, which annually hosts a contest that draws amateur and professional kitchen wizards from across the land vying to come up with the most outlandish fried food concoction imaginable. This has produced everything from deep-fried pickles to deep-fried ice cream over the years. In fact, a “Review Of Outlandish Foods that Have Been Served Deep-Fried at the Texas State Fair” would make an eye-rolling post of its very own. And indeed, that exact post will appear here tomorrow, along with an imagined auxiliary list of “Things Not Even the Texas State Fair Would Try to Serve Deep-Fried.”

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

Bad Food Rising, Part I: Twelve Inch Burgers and Pizza Over Easy is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News

It’s Low-Carb by a Nose. Or Maybe a Lipoprotein

Still one more study pitting low-carbohydrate diets against low-fat diets has been brought to fruition, and once again the evidence indicates that both work equally well when it comes to losing weight, but that the low-carb diet has the advantage of raising the dieter’s good cholesterol almost twice as much as the low-fat diet, thus being potentially more beneficial to the dieter’s heart.

Among the particulars:

Although low-carb diets have been more effective in six-month weight loss programs, this study, which ran for two years, found that over that length of time either diet resulted in a weight loss averaging around 15 pounds, or 7 percent of the starting weight.

Low-carb dieters experienced a 23 percent increase in HDL, the good cholesterol, compared to just a 12 percent boost in low-fat dieters. The 23 percent increase compares favorably to results achieved through medications. The reason for the difference in HDL results is not yet known.

The study involved a population of obese individuals who did not have diabetes or cholesterol problems, with half following an Atkins-style low-carb diet and half a low-calorie, low-fat diet. Each group participated in support sessions which, the researchers noted, were probably more instrumental in the subjects’ weight-loss success than which specific diet was followed.

Basically, the More They Like It, the Less of It They Should Eat

Parents hoping to reverse the weight gain in their children may want to heed a report by the National Cancer Institute in the latest Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Here’s the gist: according to an analysis of the diets of American kids ages 2-18, cutting back in just a few food areas can have a significant effect in reducing their overall calorie intake. Simply putting a limit on grain desserts (cakes, cupcakes, cookies, brownies, etc.), sugary sodas (the #1 source of young Americans’ calories) and pizza can make a serious dent.

Sugar-sweetened sodas and fruit drinks all by themselves provide nearly one-tenth of the total calories consumed by that age group. Include foods with solid fats on your watch list, and you’ve targeted almost 40 percent of their calorie sources. In all, the researchers identify six primary villains in the war of the waistline among young people: sodas, fruit drinks, dairy desserts, grain desserts, pizza and whole milk.

And their advice is to cut back on these food groups completely rather than switch to “healthier” versions; other than with milk, simply shifting to “low-fat” or “low-cal” options won’t really come to grips with what is ultimately a matter of fundamental food-group choices and priorities.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News):

Low-Fat Versus Low-Carb Diets, and the Foods that Make Kids Fat is a post from: CalorieLab Diet News