Carole Carson

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?

Source: Flickr

 

Does Father's Obesity Contribute to Obesity in His Offspring?

Does a father's surplus weight influence the future weight of his unborn children and the weight of his grandchildren?

1. No. The female's weight during pregnancy is the critical factor in determining whether offspring will be at risk for obesity.

2. No. Healthful eating and regular exercise, not the father's weight, determine whether his children and grandchildren will become overweight.

3. Yes. The sperm of the overweight male increases the risk of obesity in two generations of offsprings.

 

The correct answer is number 3. Working with test animals, researchers found that "molecular signals in the sperm of obese fathers can lead to obesity and diabetes-like symptoms in two generations of offspring, even though the offspring are eating healthily.

Surprisingly, metabolic disease was seen in the offspring even when the overweight fathers showed no signs of diabetes or metabolic disorders. If these findings are translatable to humans, to give their offspring the best chance for a healthy life, both mother and father need to be trim and fit.

Is How You Eat as Important as What You Eat?

In predicting future cardiovascular disease in preschoolers, is how children eat as important as what they eat? The surprising answer is yes.

A Canadian study led by Dr. Nav Persaud, a family physician, found "a significant association between poor eating habits in kids ages three to five and their levels of non-HDL—or 'bad'—cholesterol, putting them at risk for cardiovascular disease later in life.

The eating habits that place children at risk for heart disease in adulthood are

• eating while watching television;
• eating junk food between meals; and
• eating at will.

Dr. Persaud theorized that children who snack on junk food and eat while distracted with television or computer games are unable to recognize body cues telling them when they are full. Moreover, snacking in response to external cues, such as food advertisements on television, makes eating a balanced meal unlikely at suppertime.

According to Dr. Michelle May, who describes herself as a physician who successfully recovered from yo-yo dieting, these  poor eating behaviors produce the same result in adults. The only difference is that adults face more distractions than children do. We talk on the phone, work through our lunch hour, eat while driving and so on.

As with the effect on the preschoolers, Dr. May asserts that these distractions keep us from responding to internal cues telling us that we are satisfied. Equally important, the distractions prevent us from experiencing physical satisfaction from eating, which Dr. May states is "a natural, healthy, and pleasurable activity when it's done to satisfy hunger." She adds, "The bottom line is that weight management is not just about what you eat. How you eat matters just as much."

To become more mindful when eating, Dr. May recommends various strategies, including assessing one's level of hunger before eating, eating only when seated, pausing for two full minutes during meals and pushing the dinner plate away when satisfied. (For a full list of Dr. May's strategies, go here.)

Mindful eating—that is, eating with clear intention and focused attention—is a sound, inexpensive weight-loss plan. Are you ready to give it a try? If you decide to experiment with mindful eating, be sure to let me know about your results.

Photo courtesy of Geoff Peters

Are You Overweight? Maybe You Suffer from Chronic Hedonic Hyperphagia

Are you overweight? If so, you may be one of the millions of people around the world who are plagued with chronic hedonic hyperphagia.

If this is the first time you've heard this term, you aren't alone. Until April 2013, ordinary folks—indeed, even members of the medical community—were generally unaware of this syndrome.  

In research presented at the 245th meeting in New Orleans of the American Chemical Society (the members certainly meet a lot, don't they?), Tobias Hock, PhD, explained this condition.

According to Dr. Hock, hedonic hyperphagia is the "scientific term for 'eating to excess for pleasure, rather than hunger.'" He added, "the chronic form is a key factor in the epidemic of overweight and obesity that here in the United States threatens health problems for two out of every three people."

Here are four ways to tell if you suffer from this syndrome (identifying with any one of them may indicate a positive test result):

1. You open a bag of potato chips and don't stop eating them until they are all gone.
2. You open a bag of Oreo cookies and don't stop eating them until you run out of milk.
3. You are at a dinner party and completely full—no appetite whatsoever—when the hostess brings out your favorite dessert. You proceed to eat an extra large portion—and then have another serving.
4. You weigh a bit more than you like despite your continuing resolve to cut back on eating.

To understand the dynamics of hedonic hyperphagia, researchers mapped the brain activity of rats using high-tech magnetic resonance imaging devices. Some wired rats quit eating the boring rat chow and other (non-potato chip) food alternatives when they were satisfied. But the brain-wired rats given chips had an insatiable appetite for the snack food.

When viewing the activity in the brains of the rats that became chip-aholics, scientists concluded that the chips triggered the reward center in their brains. Even though the rats had eaten plenty of food, they continued to eat the chips. Just like humans who can't stop with one chip, the rats were exhibiting the typical behavior of hedonic hyperphagiacs.

But does this condition deserve its own scientific term? Critics might argue that Dr. Hoch and other researchers are simply giving gluttony a technical label. Or perhaps the critics would state the problem more succinctly, as Orson Welles did when he said, "Gluttony is not a secret vice." For most of us, eating too much shows up when we look in the mirror, stand on the bathroom scale, get a positive test for diabetes or are diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Critics might also argue that the willpower to choose not to eat large quantities of snacks is essential if we are to avoid becoming obese. In this case, strengthening willpower through the practice of moderation would be the remedy, rather than medicalization of a human foible.

While the discussion and research continue, I intend to avoid labeling my eating behavior either as hedonic hyperphagia or gluttony. Instead, I take a practical approach. What I've learned, for example, is that if I bring a package of Oreo cookies home from the store, I will eat all of them—and rather quickly, I might add, in one sitting.

After repeated experiments, I know for certain that I lack the willpower to eat one Oreo cookie and put the rest away. So until scientists find a way to add an ingredient to broccoli or Brussels sprouts that activates the reward center in my brain, I need to figure out for myself which of the essentially nutritionless foods trigger a bout of recreational eating—and keep them out of my kitchen.

This may not be a workable solution for everyone who suffers from hedonic hyperphagia, but it is offered as one way of coping. What's your strategy?

Photo courtesy of Kelly Bailey

Source: Flickr Creative Commons

 

Can Food Addiction Explain Your Extra Pounds?

Can an addiction to unhealthy food, particularly food containing high-fructose corn syrup, explain your extra pounds? Can an addiction to food also explain the global epidemic of obesity?

Yes, at least in part, says Dr. Francesco Leri, associate professor of neuroscience at the University of Guelph, who presented his findings at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting. He bases his conclusions on the response of rats to foods "containing unnaturally high concentrations of sugar, fats and taste enhancers, such as high-fructose corn syrup and foods like Oreo cookies."

But not all of the test rats became addicted to the unhealthy food. Dr. Leri believes that a vulnerability to addiction explains the varied outcomes. His conclusion is that the same may be true for humans as well. That is, some of us are vulnerable to food addiction, while others can ignore the Oreo cookies on the kitchen counter.

If food addiction is real (and not an excuse for overeating), then we need to know more about the nature of addiction. Dr. Alain Dagher, an expert on neuroeconomics at McGill University, defines addiction as a disorder of decision making. Whether the behavior involves cigarettes, food or cocaine, the addict places a premium on immediate satisfaction over delayed rewards.

Using magnetic resonance imaging, Dr. Dagher studied the brains of individuals addicted to cigarettes in response to cues to smoke and identified the specific region of the brain that regulates cravings. His findings suggest novel approaches to dealing with addiction, including transcranial stimulation of the brain.

If we accept the concept of "addiction as a pathology of choice," then potential treatments for obese individuals suffering from food addiction could focus on changing how the brain works. Looking into the not-so-distant future, individuals seeking to lose weight might simply stop by their doctor's office for an occasional brain treatment to deactivate food cravings.

Clearly, in the global battle of the bulge, the admonition to "eat less and move more" isn't working. On the contrary, we are eating more and moving less. Maybe we need to accept the reality that for some of us, food is an addiction. If so, are we ready to embrace a brave new world where tinkering with brains eliminates addictions? Could the solution be that easy?

In his third law of prediction, appearing in Profiles of the Future, science fiction writer, inventor and futurist Arthur C. Clarke states, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Given the rising number of medical problems associated with obesity, we could use some magic.

Photo courtesy of Naomi Robinson

Source: Flickr

How Many Calories Are in Your Fast-Food Meal?

How accurate are you in estimating the calories in your fast-food meal? Unless you are exceptional, you'll underestimate the calories by 20 to 25 percent. And the larger your meal, the more inclined you'll be to underestimate the calories.

Researchers who studied the responses of 1,877 customers in 89 fast-food restaurants (McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, KFC, Subway and Dunkin' Donuts) in New England have concluded that people generally underestimate the calorie content of meals. The customers consisted of adults (age 19 and older), adolescents (ages 11 through 20) and school-age children (3 to 15 years of age).

Within this population, about two-thirds of the adults, one-third of the adolescents and over half of the school-age children were overweight or obese.

Despite the laws passed in many states and cities requiring chain restaurants to include calorie information on their menus, the widespread underestimation of calories suggests that the educational effort to date is ineffective. Three-quarters of the surveyed customers were unaware of calorie information on the menu, and "less than 5% reported using it to help them choose their meal."

What may be most surprising about the study is that the greatest underestimation of calories occurred among Subway diners. Customers eating at Subway restaurants underestimated the calories consumed by 20 and 25 percent more than customers eating at McDonald's. (Are the calorie estimates of McDonald's meals more accurate than those of Subway meals because we know we are eating "fat" food at McDonald's but think we are eating "thin" food at Subway? The answer to this question wasn't addressed in the survey.)

Three years ago, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which requires calorie information on chain restaurant menus, on menus of similar retail food establishments and on vending machines. The issuance of guidelines, however, has been indefinitely delayed. In explaining the delay, Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration said that menu labeling has turned out to be one of the most challenging issues:

There are very, very strong opinions and powerful voices both on the consumer and public health side and on the industry side, and we have worked very hard to sort of figure out what really makes sense and also what is implementable.

But even if the caloric information becomes available to consumers, will it make a difference in how much or what kind of food customers choose? Maybe posting how long we need to walk to work off the 980-calorie double cheeseburger, large fries and 16-ounce soft drink—rather than calorie count—will help us make healthier choices. What do you think?

Photo courtesy of pointnshoot

Source: Flickr

 

Trivia Question: What Increases Blood Pressure?

High blood pressure, frequently called the "silent killer," threatens the health of one billion people worldwide and one in three Americans. Which of the following five behaviors increases blood pressure?

1. Talking on a cell phone

2. Eating an excessive amount of salt

3. Smoking

4. Being overweight

5. Lack of physical activity

 

If you picked all five, you are correct. Eating too much salt, smoking, being overweight and lack of exercise are fairly well-known factors for triggering high blood pressure. What we've just learned, however, is that talking on a cell phone can also cause a significant rise in blood pressure. The takeaway message is clear: put down your cell phone, snuff the cigarette, hide the salt shaker, push yourself away from the dining table and go for a walk.

 

Is Mindfulness the Latest Fad? Are the Benefits Too Good to Be True?

Would you be skeptical if I told you that without taking a pill or seeing a therapist, you could lower your blood pressure, raise your self-esteem, experience equanimity in the face of stress, improve the quality of your sleep, reduce chronic pain, get greater enjoyment from eating even while eating less, increase your energy and make better decisions? That you could be happier and see the world around you more positively?

The practitioners of mindfulness make these and other remarkable claims—and their claims are not without merit! Research is pouring in from a variety of disciplines, such as neuroscience, psychology, medicine and business, validating these significant benefits of mindfulness. (You can find a comprehensive publication database here.)

What exactly is mindfulness? Some describe mindfulness simply as "moment-by-moment awareness." Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, best-selling author of Wherever You Go, There You Are, describes mindfulness as "paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience moment to moment." Bodhipaksa's straightforward definition is my favorite: "Mindfulness is the gentle effort to be continuously present with experience."

Anyone who is willing to practice the gentle art of being present has the key to unlock the benefits currently being validated by research. The question then becomes where and how to begin. Here are three options:

1. Study a dog. Dogs are great practitioners of mindfulness, according to Jonathan Kaplan, PhD, author of Urban Mindfulness: Cultivating Peace, Presence, and Purpose in the Middle of It All. Besides being nonjudgmental (dogs think their owners are great no matter what kind of bad hair day they are having), dogs live only in the present moment. What happened a few minutes ago is of no concern, and tomorrow does not exist. Clearly, a dog is a sound role model for staying in the here and now.

2. Read a book, specifically, Jon Kabat-Zinn's definitive work, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. Besides articulating the theory of mindfulness and sharing the remarkable stories of how his patients are benefiting from its practice, Dr. Kabat-Zinn also provides a detailed program to help readers begin their own journey "along a path that ultimately leads nowhere, only to who you are."

3. Try a gentle experiment in mindfulness. Marty Cottler, PhD, a psychologist who specializes in teaching mindfulness in Grass Valley, California, recommends a three-minute practice for beginners:

At least once a day, check in with yourself. Intentionally pause for 10 seconds while you become aware of your breathing. Don’t try to change how you are breathing. Breathe naturally but with awareness.

For the remainder of this exercise, cast your eye-gaze downward to minimize visual distractions, and if possible, close your eyes and proceed.

Next, for approximately 60 seconds, move your attentive awareness from the top of your head down throughout your body to your toes and back up to the top of your head. As you scan your entire body, note areas of unpleasantness and pleasantness, such as tense shoulders or a full belly.

For another 60 seconds, focus your attention on your breathing at one of the following locations: your nostrils, lips, chest or belly. Practice awareness of your breathing at the part of the body you selected as your focus. Your attention will wander. Notice this and gently escort your attention back to awareness of your breathing at your selected body location.

For one more 60-second interval, practice being attentive to whatever grabs your attention: internal or external sensations as well as inner feelings and thoughts. Just notice—don’t chase after any of these sensations, feelings, or thoughts.

Lastly, open your eyes, raise your gaze, reestablish your connection with the outside world and carry on with your day. After following this routine for a few days, ask yourself if you are notice any difference in your daily experience.

We can easily lose track of our sense of self given the pressure of an increasingly hectic world where we are continuously bombarded with information and demands for instant decisions. Mindfulness is a way to cope—and even thrive—in this environment.

Steve Goodier, a Methodist minister and founder of an online support system, sums up the joy of practicing mindfulness in his motto, "Wherever you are, be there. If you can be fully present now, you’ll know what it means to live.” Echoing this theme, Dr. Kabat-Zinn says that mindfulness is neither a philosophy nor a religion; rather, it is "a way of being, a way of living your moments and living them fully."

What greater loss could we experience than dying without ever having been alive? And what better gift could we give ourselves than to be present during our numbered days, to live each moment fully? Be assured that in whatever time I have, my goal is to show up and be present.

Five Strategies to Improve Relationships and Live Longer

Tell me the strength of your ties to others, and I'll tell you how long you'll live.

This declaration may be a bit of an exaggeration, but researchers report that individuals with strong ties to others live longer than individuals who choose a solitary lifestyle. After reviewing nearly 150 studies on longevity, researchers concluded that "stronger social relationships were associated with a reduced risk of death of 50%."

Like the Beatles, who get by "with a little help from my friends," do individuals with solid relationships enjoy longer lives because they have more support when the going gets tough? Or does interacting with others generate biochemicals in our bodies that protect our health, much like the antioxidants in red wine? Whatever the reason, solid friendships seem to strengthen our immune system when responding to the ravages of life's inevitable storms.

But how do we build enduring connections with others? Henry David Thoreau said, "The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend." Strengthening relationships, however, isn't as straightforward as Thoreau suggests. Specific skills are involved.

Brian Ogolsky, a University of Illinois professor of human and community development, and his colleague Jill R. Bowers surveyed 35 studies and over 12,000 reports to identify the essential skills needed for promoting healthy relationships. They found five strategies that emerged as key to strengthening relationships between spouses. But the same principles can be applied to building strong ties between friends.

The five factors are: openness, positivity, assurances, shared tasks and a shared social network.

Openness is characterized by a willingness to talk about feelings—yours and those of your friend or spouse. Positivity involves being upbeat and cheerful and enjoying a playful sense of humor. Assurances entails giving your spouse or friend signals that you are committed to the relationship for the long haul. Shared tasks include switching the load of maintaining the friendship from one to the other, as well as sharing everyday tasks and each other favors as the need arises. And a shared social network, which could include neighbors, family or a religious group, while not essential, can further strengthen the ties.

Taking any important relationship for granted is a dangerous strategy—that is, if we want to keep it alive and vital. It's always important express anew our affection and appreciation for those individuals who are helping keep us strong and vigorous and for whom we can be equally supportive.