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Archive for August, 2009

Whole Foods Gets Honest

August 29th, 2009

“We sell all kinds of candy. We sell a bunch of junk,“ said the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, to the Wall Street Journal earlier this month.

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American Heart Association Recommends Less Sugar

August 29th, 2009

The American Heart Association (AHA) must be reading my blog.

When I did a Google News search for AHA and sugar, 474 articles became available. Apparently, AHA’s recent recommendation is really big news. I wonder why the sudden urgency?

I found the following information on AHA’s website:

The American Heart Association, “Recommends reduced intake of added sugars. Study highlights:

High intake of added sugars is implicated in numerous poor health conditions, including obesity, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease and stroke.

Added sugars and solid fats in food, as well as alcoholic beverages are categorized as “discretionary calories” and should be eaten sparingly.

Most American women should consume no more than 100 calories of added sugars per day; most men, no more than 150 calories.

Soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages are the number one source of added sugars in the American diet.

‘Sugar has no nutritional value other than to provide calories,’ Johnson said. ‘Consuming foods and beverages with excessive amounts of added sugars displaces more nutritious foods and beverages for many people.’ The statement says that most women should consume no more than 100 calories (about 25 grams) of added sugars per day. Most men should consume no more than 150 calories (about 37.5 grams) each day. That’s about six teaspoons of added sugar a day for women and nine for men. In contrast, the statement cites a report from the 2001–04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that showed the average intake of added sugars for all Americans was 22.2 teaspoons per day (355 calories).“

If on average we are eating over 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, and the AHA is recommending women reduce sugar intake to 6 teaspoons and men reduce to 9 teaspoons, this is a DRASTIC REDUCTION IN THE DAILY AMOUNT OF SUGAR WE OUGHT TO BE EATING.

For women, this means cutting back our sugar intake by 73%.

73%!

Here’s a pie chart to illustrate just how much the AHA is recommending we cut back.

This huge percentage is a sign that sugar has wedged itself as an all too common ingredient in people’s diets. The data is interesting; the average daily intake is from a report dated 2001-2004. We are probably eating more sugar now than then, but that is the current data we have.

Not only do we have to make a change, the AHA is suggesting we make a drastic change. Our health and the health of our children depends on it. Cutting our sugar consumption in half is not enough.

As we enter into the “Age of Transparency” cutting down on sugar should become easier. As we, the consumer, demand more nutritious foods and less sugary junk food, the food producers will scramble to satisfy our demand. This is not going to happen overnight, but I have high hopes that the pendulum will swing in favor of health food. For the AHA to make such a giant statement about sugar, it is a sign that we are already heading in that direction, or my blog must be very convincing.

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The Irony of Junk Food

August 29th, 2009

Websites that promote apples do not disparage oranges or peaches or cherries. If you look at websites that sell whole grains, they do not disparage other healthy whole food products.

What I find interesting is that Junk Food “A” may talk very highly about their product, but have something terrible to say about Junk Food “B”. The sugar people will go off about alternative sweeteners, and the alternative sweetener folks will go off about both HFCS and sugar. All the while, each company’s product is touted to be quite superior. If each of the junk food companies has something legitimate to say about the other junk food company’s products, isn’t this a sure sign that it’s all….JUNK?!

Here are some examples:

What the Sugar Association has to say: “HFCS does not exist in nature. It is a highly processed product that requires the ingenuity and efforts of man for its creation, and was unknown to the world until the 1970s. Sugar is all-natural and has been the primary sweetening ingredient worldwide for thousands of years and still is the predominate sweetener in every country, except the United States. Sugar exists naturally in almost every fruit and vegetable but most abundantly in sugar cane and sugar beets.”

The Sugar Association has gone so far as to create a website called The Truth About Splenda which further disparages another competitor.

Here is what SPLENDA has to say: “SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener may be used as part of a healthy diet that includes a variety of nutritious foods in moderate portions. Because SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener tastes like sugar and can be used for cooking and baking, it helps meet consumer demand for good-tasting foods and beverages without all the empty calories of sugar.”

and…

“Although sucralose (generic term for SPLENDA) is made from a process that begins with sugar, the body does not recognize it as sugar or a carbohydrate. It is not metabolized by the body for energy, so it is calorie-free…..it passes through the body without being broken down for energy, so it has no calories, and the body does not recognize it as a carbohydrate. ” This is saying that SPLENDA is not recognized by the body as a food, which in my opinion means we have no business putting it in our bodies!!

The NutraSweet Company is proud of their product because of its lack of calories: “Aspartame has many benefits. Aspartame can reduce or replace the sugar and calories in foods and beverages while maintaining great taste. Thus, aspartame offers one simple step in helping people move closer to achieving a more healthful diet.” That’s funny.

Saccharin comes right out and says, “Although the totality of the available research indicates saccharin is safe for human consumption, there has been controversy over its safety. The basis for the controversy rests primarily on findings of bladder tumors in some male rats fed high doses of sodium saccharin.” Oh, woops. Just bladder tumors. No worries. Then I wonder why convenient stores have saccharin warning signs in their store windows?

Again, healthy whole foods will never be controversial. We don’t need science to tell us what our common sense leads us to believe about healthy foods….that an apple is good nutrition, for example. If there is any controversy about a food you are eating, I would suggest you consider eating something that has never been controversial.

You can’t go wrong by eating whole foods, keeping in mind portion sizes. You might go wrong by eating JUNK. To me, it’s not worth risking what I don’t know.

Lastly, I include with the Corn Refiner’s Association take on their product HFCS, because it is so funny to me: “Mention corn syrups and consumers think of the sweetness and energy they offer–outstanding characteristics–” More like mention corn syrup and watch people roll their eyes. The press, the commercials and the lobbying is just ridiculous. I can’t imagine anyone going to such great lengths to lobby for steel cut oats or lima beans.

Here is an interesting article about HFCS, with quotes from the president of the Corn Refiner’s Association, Audrae Erickson. HFCS or sugar? Sugar or HFCS?

The press on this right now is downright silly. We have companies responding to consumer demand by taking HFCS out of their products and going back to using sugar. Hooray? Really? To me this is the silliest battle between highly processed junk foods that we should eat less of altogether. I don’t eat either one, and it’s difficult to avoid because most packaged products have one or the other. I usually end up eating fruit, darnit.

My point is that no matter how ignorant we might want to feign to be, it’s obvious what is healthy whole food and what is not. I don’t believe that the “foods” created in the laboratories were made to improve our health, although many of the artificial sweetener producers would argue and say that they are providing a low-calorie sweetener alternative. What good does it do to put a low-calorie sweetener in a product that is loaded with junk and many other types of calories?

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Wellness 2.0: an evaluative experience

August 29th, 2009

By Lauren Verrilli

At Health 2.0 we spend a lot of time researching new
technologies. As the new intern, I started my research on a basic and
well-known health topic: wellness and weight loss. It seems most people would
like to lose a few pounds, get a little more sleep and minimize stress. Not
surprisingly, health care technology has caught onto this need and many
companies are coming out with cutting-edge technologies to feed the need.

I took a look at eight or so online wellness platforms and I
found a wide range of services, from consumer facing to business wide fitness
programs.

In oversimplified terms, wellness 2.0 can be categorized
into three rough groups: the first is for businesses that want to be involved
in their employee’s health and wellbeing (and maybe lower health insurance
costs while at it). The second is
for those annoying calorie-counting dieters who want to catalog their every
bite. The last group is those who want a program that is personalized that can
track their every move, meal and mood.

Let’s start with the business-to-business wellness
technologies. The idea behind
these technologies is that a company (of any size really) can buy the service,
get employees enrolled and offer incentives and healthy competition to motivate
employees to stay healthy and happy at work. A few companies are prominent in
this space, including PureWellness, Nutrition Quest and
Limeade. PureWellness conducts
large-scale health risks assessments for companies and then works to implement
effective company wide health imitative. NutritionQuest’s
website is currently difficult to navigate but it seems they provide in depth
health questionnaires and surveys and subsequent wellness programs for
companies.

The most
comprehensive service I found was Limeade.
Limeade offers a corporate online service (and iPhone app) where employees can
track their well-being, energy level, mood, weight, heart health and personal
goals. Additionally, the employees can challenge their coworkers to fitness
goals (i.e. lose 5 lbs by the company Christmas party or bike to work 3 days a
week) or HR can set up company wide challenges. Employees receive points for
achieving goals or improving health and can cash out for bonuses or PTO.

Limeade also incorporates an “employee dashboard” that lets
HR see aggregated results of employee’s health risks, energy level, and
happiness at work etc. All results are anonymous and summarized so employees
don’t have to worry about their personal information getting in the hands of
their boss.

The second category of wellness 2.0 incorporates one simple
equation: weight loss= calories burned > calories consumed. Calorie counting
will never go away (as annoying as it is to be friends with a calorie counter)
because the bottom line is it works. If you reduce your intake and increase
your output you will lose weight. It’s not enjoyable, but it is effective. The
best calorie counters out there are the ones that include every food known to
mankind and also help you calculate how many calories you burn from typing or hiking
in Yosemite.

This type of platform is easier to understand but can be
more work to develop the calorie counter application. Lots of companies are
getting into this space- especially incorporating with a smart phone
application that allows you to log foods while you are at a restaurant or
grocery store. Livestrong The Daily Plate has an excellent combination of
calorie counting and exercise calorie converter. The service is straightforward
and free. Sign up, input your body stats and current level of activity and your
weight loss goal and bam! it tells you how many calories you need to eat and
burn daily. The most useful
feature is the range of foods and activities included on Daily Plate’s lists.
They will tell you how many calories you burn making photocopies or folding
laundry and can tell you the calorie difference between some brands of chicken.
Daily Plate has conquered calorie burning but has yet to move onto other areas
of wellness.

Dr. J Says is a fairly low
profile soon to be exciting nutrition program/kiosk that also focuses on caloric
intake and nutrition for on campus dining and restaurant owners. Two popular
and user-friendly iPhone applications in this arena are Nutrition Menu and Wellness.
Nutrition Menu boasts over 41,000 food items on their calorie list and 250
restaurants. Wellness is a free service that has some fast food menus readily
available and allows you to customize your favorite meals and includes info on
certain vitamins and supplements.

The last type of wellness application is the
all-encompassing life-managing and tracking platform. There are a few in this
category that we have looked at (and even tried). One I personally like is Sensei: an iphone and blackberry integrated service
that helps you make lifestyle changes to stay healthy. Sensei personalizes your
weight loss by fitting in exercise time into your work day, giving you
individualized health tips, motivational messages and behavioral reminders
(i.e. no snacking past 9pm). Sensei does everything- and does it pretty well.
The only question to ask yourself is how much do you want an iPhone app to take
over your life?

Another notable company is The
Carrot, a health-tracking web and smart phone application and
incorporates many aspects of health. The Carrot allows you to keep track of
your health by not only using standard measurements such as weight and blood
pressure, but also incorporates mood, medication, job satisfaction, wake up
time, sexual activity and many others. The Carrot also creates comprehensive
reports you can print out or save for your personal health records.

Life Mojo is another tracking
program that gears itself toward athletes with specific goals. While they do
provide calorie counters and general health tips, they place an emphasis on
runners, cyclists and gym rats to share routes, routines and workouts.

Let’s face it: losing weight, getting in shape and setting
fitness goals will never go out of style. Companies have been capitalizing on
it for years and will continue to blossom as the Web and Health realms move
from 2.0 to 3.0 and beyond. Depending on who you are, where you want to go with
your health, how much you are willing to pay and how much you want to know and
track about your health and wellness, you’ve got plenty of options. Most of
these companies offer free trials so explore a few and figure out what actually
gets you up and running.

If you want a first hand look at some of these companies, many will be featured at the Health 2.0 conference in October. More details to come.

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Low Carb Diet Sample - Day 6

August 29th, 2009

www.lowcarbvegetarianliving.com Low Carb Veggie Diet Sample. This is the sixth day of a week long low carb vegetarian diet sample, where you get to follow me and see what I have eaten for a week. Learn about the low carb vegetarian lifestyle!