Carole Carson

In Managing Cholesterol Levels, Is Weight or Fitness More Important to Your Health?

Researchers at the American Physiological Society studied 90 men between the ages of 18 and 30 to see whether weight or fitness was more important in maintaining healthy HDL levels. Before the experiment began, the authors of the study took basic physical measurements from the volunteers: height, weight, waist size, blood pressure and body composition. Researchers also analyzed the blood of participants for cholesterol, insulin and other markers for heart disease. What were the results of the study?

1. Participants with normal weight who engaged in a regular weightlifting program had HDL levels that functioned better than overweight participants and nonexercising participants.

2. Participants, independent of their weight, who engaged in a regular weightlifting program had HDL levels that functioned better than nonexercising participants. 

 

The answer is number 2. The critical factor in maintaining functional, healthy HDL levels was regular exercise—in this case, weightlifting. This conclusion is encouraging to those of us who may be overweight but still seek to be healthy.

Want to Lose Weight? Add Spice to Your Life

One of the benefits of modern life that we can easily take for granted is the availability of dozens of spices—from the ordinary to the exotic. Yet if we go back in time, we are reminded that spices were once so coveted that they rivaled gold and precious stones.

During the reign of the Roman Empire, pepper and other popular spices were status symbols for leaders and wealthy families. And at the birth of Jesus Christ, the three Magi from the Orient brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, the latter two being exotic, expensive spices equivalent in value to gold. Fifteen centuries later, Columbus discovered the New World while looking for gold and—you guessed it—a route to the spices in the Orient.

In the 21st century, however, you don't have to be a student of history, a wealthy individual or a gourmet chef to incorporate spices into your cooking. At a modest price, you can easily purchase ordinary spices—like onion, oregano, paprika, pepper and garlic—at your grocery store.

Or you can experiment with more exotic spices, such as Aleppo pepper, a Turkish crushed chili spice that can be sprinkled on deviled eggs, pizza, salads or grilled meat. Going one step further, you can create your own exotic mix of spices, such as Bavarian style seasoning, which is made of crushed brown mustard, rosemary, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and sage.  

Why should you expand your cooking repertoire with spices?

Because most of us are trying either to lose weight or avoid gaining weight, and spices can be helpful in reaching our goal.

John Peters, PhD, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and chief of strategy and innovation at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center, conducted an experiment to see if spices could overcome the loss in dietary satisfaction of foods when the level of fat is reduced. The goal was "to see if using herbs and spices could help people meet the recommended Dietary Guidelines that advocate a moderate total fat and reduced saturated fat intake." If so, the use of spices could be a practical strategy for weight loss or weight maintenance.

In Dr. Peters's experiment, a test group of 150 subjects ate a meal (meat loaf, vegetables and creamy pasta) that was either full fat, reduced fat or reduced fat with spices. The meals were randomized so that the subjects did not know which meal they were eating, and the subjects assigned a score to the meal based on dietary satisfaction.

Dr. Peters found that the overall liking of the full-fat meal and the reduced-fat meal with spices received the same score in satisfaction. Indeed, participants liked the reduced fat spice vegetables better than full fat vegetables. The creamy pasta didn't fare as well, probably because the spices cannot deliver the unique mouthfeel of creamy pasta.

Bottom line, Dr. Peters concluded that except for foods that are heavily dependent on a creamy mouth feel, "spices will likely have great utility in many foods as a way to reduce fat and saturated fat." In other words, through the creative use of spices, we can enjoy reduced-fat food as much as, if not more than, a full-fat food.

If you need ideas on how to incorporate spices into your cooking, check out the recipes on the McCormick for Chefs website. You can choose recipes by kind of food (e.g., poultry, appetizers or salads), style of food (e.g., vegetarian, ethnic or health and wellness) or brand of spice (e.g., Lawry's, McCormick Culinary or Thai Kitchen). You'll also find dozens of recipes with a unique combination of flavors, such as one of my favorites, Crunchy Asian Slaw with Roasted Ginger.

Nearly 60 years ago, syndicated columnist Harriet Van Horne, wrote, "Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all." Harriet was ahead of her time in promoting real food for real people. As evidenced by her comments in an early Vogue magazine article, Harriet was not a fan of "premixed, prewhipped, pre-stewed foods that crowd the grocer’s shelf."

So in the spirit of uninhibited learning, go ahead and express your creativity in the kitchen by experimenting with new and exotic spices—and as an added benefit, watch the numbers on the scale retreat.

Bon appétit.

Harness the Power of Ritual to Enjoy Food More—Even If You Eat Less

If you've struggled to lose weight, you know that the temptation to have one more helping—or one more bite—is tough to resist. Willpower can take us only so far.

Plus, if you watch television or read while you eat, you may be unaware of how much you have consumed. Indeed, the distraction  may very well have masked or overridden the basic animal pleasure of eating.

So what simple technique could you practice that would help you enjoy your food more and possibly eat less? One researcher tells us to tap into the power of ritual.

Almost everyone knows that birthday cake isn't eaten until "Happy Birthday" has been sung, a wish has been made and the candles have been blown out. The ritual, which precedes the dessert, contributes to the pleasure of the occasion. However, what we might not know is how much rituals can positively influence the experience of eating—even shaping how much we eat.

Through self-observation and watching the idiosyncratic routines of others, psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs, an expert on self-regulation and a professor at the University of Minnesota, became curious about the impact of rituals on eating behavior. To examine their impact, she designed four experiments.

In the first experiment, some of the participants were given a set of instructions (in effect, a detailed ritual) on how to eat a candy bar. They were told to break the bar in half without unwrapping it; then they were to unwrap half of the bar and eat it. For the remaining two steps, they were to unwrap and then eat the second half. The other participants were given a candy bar and told to eat it in whatever fashion they wanted.

The participants who performed the detailed eating ritual gave a higher rating to the quality of the chocolate and enjoyed the candy bar more than the other group did, and they were willing to pay more for the bar than the other group was. Dr. Vohs concluded that "a short, fabricated ritual can produce real effects."

A second experiment reinforced the initial conclusion and added another dimension—a longer delay between the ritual and eating enhanced the enjoyment of eating the food, even for a simple vegetable such as carrots.

In the final two experiments, the researchers found that watching others perform the ritual didn't add value for the observers—to have a positive impact, the person who is eating must be involved.

Seven hundred years ago, Zen Buddhist monks introduced the rudiments of today's elaborate tea ceremony—a practice that demonstrates the powerful impact of ritual. But we don't have to go back in time to find examples of ritual behavior everywhere in our daily life—from the recurring music that triggers the start of Monday Night Football to parents' bedtime routines for children, from spiritually based rituals (such as Masonic rituals) to the collective American feast on Thanksgiving Day.

Clearly, rituals are potent in influencing behavior because they make us more mindful and present. Given Dr. Voh's findings plus related studies on weight loss through mindful eating, you might want to introduce or reinforce pre-meal rites that can help you eat less while enjoying your food more.

Rituals might include sitting down at a table to eat without the distraction of a television or reading material, giving thanks for the food before beginning to eat or taking a five-minute midmeal break.

In designing your personal rituals, the only limitation is your imagination. The rites can be highly individualistic or idiosyncratic and still effectively harness the power of ritual. Best of all, the benefits are free and available to all.

Bon appétit.

Photo courtesy of Jesse!S?

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