March
2004 Health Report
Carbs:
How to assess the latest diet trend
The food police have issued a new regime—again. This time
around the villains are carbohydrates. If you're confused
by all the dos and don'ts the mainstream press is slinging
around these days, here's a rundown on the truth about carbs
that should help you make healthful diet decisions.
Question: Is consuming fewer carbohydrates really a magical
formula for weight loss? No, according, to Gary Foster, clinical
director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the
University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine. Foster says
that though some small, short term studies have shown that
cutting carbs can help a person shed weight faster than a
low fat diet, that longer term studies show that after a year,
that difference disappears.
The truth is that “the only way to lose weight is to consume
fewer calories than you expend,” Foster says.
While cutting back on carbohydrates can be useful to people
trying to lose weight, cutting out all carbs isn't what they
should be doing. Fruits and vegetables are primarily carbohydrates,
and they are essential to a healthy diet. So the answer seems
to be to cut the carbs that aren't adding a lot of nutritional
value, like white bread, rice and pasta. Whole grains are
important to your diet, but cutting out overprocessed grains
high in carbohydrates is probably a good idea.
So even though it's fashionable to throw out the carbs these
days, don't become part of a fad that will actually decrease
the value of your nutritional intake. Like all other nutrition
news, you will benefit if you look up information and take
steps that are healthful, not harmful.
—adapted from Cooking Light
Look
and feel better in five seconds
You can no longer claim that you're too busy to have a healthy
lifestyle. All you need is five seconds. You'll feel better
physically and emotionally if you make just a few small adjustments
throughout your day.
Don't believe us? Here's what you can do with five seconds:
- Down some Vitamin C. Just a tablespoon
of pimientos gives you nearly 15 percent of the RDA for
Vitamin C. And don't be afraid to scoop some pimientos on
your next salad or sandwich—it adds just three calories.
- Bag carrying technique. Alternate shoulders
when you carry a bag. Doing so will help you avoid pulling
a muscle.
- Ditch the cotton. Be sure to toss the cotton
ball that's stuffed at the top of a bottle of vitamins or
medicine. Exposing the cotton to air can attract microorganisms
that could make you sick or decrease the potency of your
pills.
- Be positive. While it may sound cliché,
focusing on the positive will make you feel better. Resentful
or negative emotions can spur depression and reduce your
immune system.
- Give your hands a break. Make sure you
rest your hands on your lap about every 15 minutes when
you work at your computer. People who sit in front of a
screen all day and don't drop their hands can suffer from
body aches and, in the future, hypertension.
- Toss a B-12 pill. Inadequate levels of
B-12 in your diet makes you prone to suffer from heart disease,
Alzheimer's or a stroke. Katherine L. Tucker, Ph.D., director
of the Epidemiology and Dietary Assessment Research Program
at Tufts University in Boston recommends you take a 500-microgram
supplement.
—adapted
from Fitness
Are you
using too much energy to get the approval of others?
Getting other people's approval can be a nice feeling. But
if you're spending too much time trying to make others feel
good or approve of you at your own expense, it could lead
to overwhelming feelings of fatigue and exhaustion. If you're
willing to give away too much of yourself, you can end up
feeling angry and resentful, and still needing that bit of
approval from the people in your life who are handing it out.
On the one hand it's OK to please others if that's what you
really want to do, but if your motivation is that you're feeling
obligated to do these things, then it's probably better for
psychological health if you don't. If you stay true to yourself
you'll probably be happier in the long run.
—adapted from O magazine
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