by OneMoreBite | Oct 25, 2005 | Weight Loss News
Mice Benefit from Yo-Yo Dieting Say Researchers
Finally, another mouse study indicated that on-again, off-again dieting may actually prevent breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Mice on the so-called “yo-yo” diet regimen had a 96 percent reduction in cancer, compared to the animals allowed to eat whatever they wanted.
The results were surprising to the researchers who initially believed the effect of this yo-yo pattern would be detrimental (obviously, that’s what any sane person would have assumed).
“This is the way people used to eat,” says study author Margot Cleary, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Hormel Institute in Austin. “For many, many centuries for human beings it was feast or famine. Maybe the body has adapted to that.”
Whether the findings will apply to humans remains to be seen but, if they do, they would add a new twist to what is known about nutrition and disease.
“It’s been well known for decades that chronic food restriction is protective against lots of things, not just cancer, but it was thought the protective effect existed to the degree you restricted calories,” Dr. Cleary explains.
“Our results show that it’s really the manner that you receive these calories that can have a significant effect on what the impact is,” she notes.
You can incorporate “cheat days” into your dieting plan and still lose weight. In fact, that’s the method employed by many bodybuilders and other elite athletes who must stay in top form year around. A once a week cheat day (or cheat meal for the ultra disciplined) goes a long way toward keeping your sanity, plus your body likes it as it does get used to the feast/famine cycle.
If you want to diet, do so with a bit more common sense. Stay on your plan for a day or two, then allow a bit of a cheat day, then back to your plan for another day or two and so forth. This disciplined approach to yo-yo dieting may be just the thing to jump start your weight loss.
By cheat day I mean go ahead and have what you want, but I don’t mean carry home two grocery sacks full of treats and consume them at one sitting. Sane binging is eating half the bag of Hershey’s Kisses, while out-of-control binging is eating that bag, plus three others you bought for Halloween, then having to go back out to restock for the trick-or-treaters.
Related Articles: Lifestyle Can Dictate Course of Breast Cancer
by OneMoreBite | Feb 13, 2005 | Weight Loss News
Krispy Kreme is probably going to file a Chapter 11 bankruptcy because people don’t stop at one donut, they eat a dozen while driving home from work, and they finally realized they were getting to big to get in the car.
Yes, a donut is fine, once in awhile, but they aren’t a good nutritional choice for breakfast.
by OneMoreBite | Jan 5, 2005 | Weight Loss News
Japanese researchers at Hiroyshima University reported that women are 10 times more likely than men to develop anorexia and bulimia. This conclusion was drawn after their rather questionable study which compared brain scans by MRI showing the differing responses of men and women when shown unpleasant words describing body parts versus neutral words.
Well duh! Take any group of women, show them unpleasant words describing body image and you’ll have an unhappy group of women, but do the same with a group of men and you’ll have a bored group of men asking if they can change the channel.
Men would probably be laughing and slapping each other on the back while women would be having unpleasant memories of past experiences of their own or others they’d witnessed. This might be a good test of empathy but it is not indicative of whether women would develop an eating disorder! How on earth they drew that conclusion is beyond me. Probably all men researchers, I’ll bet.
Look in any magazine, any TV show and nearly any movie and you’ll see women presented at their most attractive when they are thin and perfect, while men simply do not have the same stringent physical requirements to be considered highly desirable.
Case in point: Donald Trump. No one would even date that man if he worked in a warehouse and carried a lunch pail, believe me. That man’s only attraction is cold cash.
Most women grow up surrounded with negative associations and troubling body image issues by virtue of our society while men do not suffer the same indignities. You cannot draw any conclusions based on this ridiculous study except that the researchers were too lazy to put together an unbiased study in the first place.
If the study had been about body imagine itself, it would have made sense, but the conclusion about eating disorders is a leap at best.
by OneMoreBite | Dec 31, 2004 | Weight Loss News
Is Fast Food Okay Sometimes?
To hear the fast food industry tell it, you can eat McDonalds every day and be perfectly healthy. I disagree with that, but you certainly can eat fast food occasionally and still lose weight. I love burgers and fries.
Healthday.com today reported that, “frequent fast food consumption cannot be part of a healthful diet, despite claims to the contrary by the food industry,” according to Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston and senior author of a recent study
In response the National Restaurant Association said it could not respond to the study without knowing more details, and then submitted a statement saying, “Dietary experts agree that all foods can be part of a healthy diet — foods that are readily available in varying portion sizes on all types of restaurant menus.” Well what else would they say?
The No. 1 vegetable kids eat are french fries, with ketchup (tomato candy) the close second. That’s not good.
by OneMoreBite | Nov 23, 2004 | Weight Loss News
Don’t be a stastic. Make small changes like taking a bowlful of chips instead of the entire bag. Practice portion control by eating a piece of fruit and then waiting an hour before eating something else. Cut your sandwich in half and eat the other half later as a snack, instead of a candy bar.
Notice how often you put something in your mouth out of habit or because “it’s there,” and then take steps to break that pattern. It begins with awareness.
Enjoy what you eat, take time with it. Notice it, smell it, taste it. Don’t just inhale food any more! Savor it. Take teensy bites. Let a piece of chocolate melt in your mouth. Every chew releases flavor and texture into your mouth and that is where the pleasure in eating lies.
Together we can work to bring down those annual deaths from obesity by focusing on ourselves and what we choose to eat.
by OneMoreBite | Sep 30, 2004 | Weight Loss News
This is sure to cause an uproar amongst the hundreds of manufacturers currently bringing new low carb foods to market. Recent studies showed that at the six month’s point the low carb diet was more effective but during a 12-month study those early gains were lost and all was even once again. No matter which approach, all dieters ended up with about the same amount of weight lost overall.
It’s interesting to note that “low fat” is considered okay in Canada as are “low calorie” and “low sodium.” Why they decided to pick on low carb, I don’t know but I’ll bet it’s got Atkins Corporation a bit riled. Stay tuned. The gloves are off.
