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Valentine’s Day and Healthy Eating Habits for Continued Weight Loss

Valentine’s Day is almost here and the candy hearts and chocolates are out everywhere, from gas stations to grocery stores. It can be hard to resist, as it is often the first thing you see when walking into most stores. It’s on your co-workers’ desks. Your children bring it home from school. For those of us who are chocoholics, this can be a dangerous time of year. How can we help keep ourselves from completely de-railing our healthy eating habits?

Here are some Valentine’s Day tips:

  1. Avoid going into the stores where the candy will be up front (think drugstores, etc.) when you are hungry. Chocolate is tempting enough – being hungry around chocolate is too hard to resist!
  2. If you completely deprive yourself, you are more likely to give into a big binge. Don’t buy the whole cake, get just one cupcake from the bakery. But the little four-pack of chocolates, not the jumbo heart! If you know you can’t stop at just one, then buy only one, to avoid excessive temptations.
  3. Homemade chocolate covered strawberries are only about 50 calories each (half dipped in chocolate). It’s romantic, low calorie and you are still eating chocolate. What could be better?

And remember, you can’t go wrong with jewelry on Valentine’s Day!

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on February 11, 2011 under Healthy Living
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We Still Have a Long Way to Go

As many of my patients already know, I recently returned from The Obesity Society’s research and education conference. There was a tremendous amount of information to process, but I thought I would share a few of the pertinent take-home points.

Evidence shows over and over again that obesity is a disease, NOT a matter of will power or self-control. Studies show that people who are naturally thin have bodies that will increase their calorie burning if they eat too much. This is not a matter of self control; it is a matter of genetics. We do not blame the patient with chronic health conditions such as arthritis or psoriasis, and we should not blame the patient suffering from obesity either. Health care professionals are some of the worst offenders, with a high percentage of nurses and physicians showing prejudicial attitudes towards obese patients. Thankfully this is starting to improve, but we have a long way to go yet.

(As a side note, the only people I saw eating the brownies at obesity conference lunch were the thin people… where’s the self control there?)

Menopause really does cause weight gain. Mice that had their ovaries surgically removed had to decrease their caloric intake by about 30% just to maintain their weight. Mice that had “sham” surgeries and kept their ovaries ate the same and maintained their weight. Interestingly, estrogen, but not progesterone, helped minimize this weight gain. Of course the risks and benefits of hormone replacement therapy have to be carefully weighed for each individual patient.

Childhood obesity is still prevalent, and Georgia has the highest rate of teenage obesity in the country! Kids don’t have recess like they used to, school lunches are notoriously high in calories and Physical Education classes are mostly optional. Parents (even the thin ones who eat brownies at obesity conferences!) have to model the good habits they want their kids to learn. Healthy habits are good for the entire family, and kids who are singled out to lose weight are rarely successful.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on October 27, 2010 under Healthy Living
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The Greater of Two Evils

There’s plenty of talk about how unhealthy fast food can be, as if it was the ultimate cause of our abundant health problems in America. True, many fast foods are pretty bad for us, containing high levels of saturated fat and far too few fruits and vegetables. But the fast food genre as a whole may not be as evil as many think. In fact, I would like to propose that most sit down restaurants are worse for our health than fast food.

Still skeptical? Consider this: The average plate of food at most sit-down restaurants tops out at 1,300 calories per plate, not including the sodas or alcoholic drinks, the bread basket, the appetizers, or the dessert! In contrast, the average burger and fry meal from a fast food joint adds up to about 950 calories. Still high, yes, but significantly less.

Plus, portion sizes at most sit-down restaurants average three servings per plate. That’s right: One meal should feed three people, and again, that doesn’t include appetizers, dessert, and other extras. And just because you order a salad as an entrée doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. It’s not unusual to have a restaurant salad weigh in at a whopping 1,200 to 1,500 calories.

When it comes to dining out, we need to throw away our preconceived notions that fast food is the worst thing we can eat. A perfect example is Chick-fil-A. Their chicken nuggets, with lower fat and minimal breading, are only 400 calories for a large, 12-piece lunch. McDonald’s bacon ranch grilled chicken salad with half a packet of full-calorie ranch dressing is a mere 350 calories. When was the last time you ate only 350 calories for lunch at a restaurant? It was probably the same time you shared your meal with two co-workers!

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on August 27, 2010 under Healthy Living
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Healthy Eating

A couple of years ago I had a patient come to our office. She was overweight and was trying to “eat healthier.” She stated that she was no longer drinking sodas or snacking on chips. Instead, she proudly showed us her 20-ounce bottle of juice and her snack of whole grain trail mix.

Was this really healthier eating? She was, in fact, consuming more calories than she had when she was eating chips and soda. Since she was already very overweight and was suffering from weight-related medical problems (high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes), this change in her eating habits (and increase in calories) only worsened her health.

So, how do we know if “healthy” foods are actually healthy for us?

First, you have to know that if you are overweight, losing weight is the most important thing you can do for your health. For example, blueberries are a very “healthy” food, rich in anti-oxidants and vitamins. They are thought to decrease the risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer. But if you are overweight, simply eating blueberries is not nearly as helpful as losing 10 pounds, which will decrease your risk of heart disease and breast cancer much more significantly. It’s not that blueberries are bad for you; they just won’t improve your health as much as a little weight loss will.

It’s all about perspective.

So what “healthy” foods are really healthy for everyone? Foods that are high in fiber, high in vitamins and LOW IN CALORIES are truly healthy for everyone. These criteria are met primarily in fruits and vegetables. Don’t substitute fruit juice for whole fruit because juice simply concentrates the calories and doesn’t satisfy your hunger nearly as well.

The patient I told you about earlier could have traded her oversized bottle of juice for five medium oranges and consumed the same number of calories, yet she would have felt fuller eating the actual fruit. After eating five oranges, she would likely have been too full to eat her high calorie trail mix!

Also, lean meats such as baked skinless chicken breasts, broiled pork chops with the excess fat removed and fresh fish such as tilapia or salmon are also good ways to get the protein needed to keep muscle mass (and metabolism) in good shape. Limit processed foods (hot dogs, bologna), as they tend to be very high in sodium.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on July 21, 2010 under Healthy Living
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Calorie Counting Gets Easier

We can debate the pros and cons of healthcare reform, but one of the good things to come out of the new legislation is a law requiring chain restaurants with 20+ locations to print calorie counts on menus and list calories in fast food.

Some argue that this won’t help the average American lose weight, but it sure will help the American who is actively trying to watch their weight stay in better control. Think of calories like money; if you don’t know how much you are spending, how will you stay on budget? It’s the same with nutrition. If you don’t know the content of what you’re eating, it’s like writing a blank check and hoping it all works out.

Who wants to guess that this method doesn’t work so well for your bank account? Well, it doesn’t work well for our waistlines, either.

Once we all realize that the average American eats more than 1000 calories per meal when they eat out (and sometimes a whole lot more) we can start to make more informed choices, and really begin to manage our weight more effectively.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on May 28, 2010 under Healthy Living
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3 Habits of highly successful preschoolers

According to Sarah Anderson, PhD, of Ohio State University College of Public Health in Columbus, and Robert Whitaker, MD, of Temple University in Philadelphia, three simple household routines are associated with an almost 40% reduction in the risk of childhood obesity.

The study was based on 4 year olds who were followed for 3 years. Families who routinely followed these 3 habits had children who were significantly less likely to suffer from childhood obesity. These 3 habits have also been shown to improve schoolwork and achievement scores.

#1 Eat dinner as a family six or seven times a week.

#2 Limit the time the child watches TV to less than two hours a day.

#3 Make sure he or she gets more than 10.5 hours of sleep a night.

No one of these habits seem to be more important than any other, and only children who did all three had the significant risk reduction.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on April 23, 2010 under Healthy Living
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Prevention

Have you ever wondered why physicians are so concerned with high blood pressure and high cholesterol? I mean, neither condition is painful or really uncomfortable. A person can have both hypertension and hyperlipidemia for years and never even know there was a problem. So why do we get treated? Well, because these conditions can lead to other health problems such as heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, etc. Many of the medications we take will help prevent heart attacks and strokes. We used to only have “lifestyle intervention” which is when your doctor told you to eat healthier and get more exercise.

Which works better to decrease the risk of heart attack and stroke?

A new study named “NAVIGATOR” addressed this issue. Patients were either put on a blood pressure medication, a diabetes medication or were told to “diet and exercise” and lose 5% of their body weight. Who did better?

Patients were followed to see who developed diabetes, who had heart attacks or strokes during the study and who had heart disease 5 years later.

The patients who lost 5% of their starting weight had less diabetes, heart attacks and strokes than the patients who took medication instead. (This means a 300lb man who loses only 15lbs and keeps it off will prevent heart attacks strokes and diabetes more efficiently than expensive brand name medications!)

This just goes to prove that there is no “miracle pill” that replaces bad eating habits or lack of exercise. It is very important to control blood pressure, high cholesterol, and blood sugar, and medications can be an important way to do this. But they don’t take the place of a healthy lifestyle.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on April 13, 2010 under Healthy Living
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Evidence-based Nutrition

You may have heard of the concept of evidence-based medicine, which is what most doctors strive to practice. This simply means that ideally every decision we make as physicians should be based on non-biased evidence, usually in the form of double-blind large studies, and not on anecdotal evidence (for example: my aunt Bess’s arthritis felt better after eating more turnips).

Unfortunately, this concept is hard to find when it comes to nutrition. Good studies are hard to come by, and rarely address obese patients with a variety of health issues. Many “studies” are flawed and jump to the wrong conclusion. For example, studies prove that crime in New York goes up in the summertime. Studies also show that ice cream sales go up in New York in the summertime. It would be a flawed conclusion to assume that ice cream causes crime, but that’s the kind of conclusions these less-than-scientific studies jump to.

If we follow traditional medical advice, an obese patient with diabetes and a history of a heart attack and kidney damage would have to follow a low carbohydrate, low fat, low protein diet. I guess that leaves them with water and air, but that would be one hard diet to follow! More current studies would suggest that a lower carbohydrate diet that causes weight loss would probably be the best for this patient.

It can be difficult for even the scientific-savvy person to determine which studies are valid and which are nonsense. If you have any questions about the best way to eat for your particular health issues, we can address this with you and make an eating plan that fits your health, personality and lifestyle, using the best evidence-based medical advice available.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on March 30, 2010 under Healthy Living
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The danger of childhood obesity

Two articles published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine discussed the health risks of childhood obesity. Obese and non-obese children who were born between 1945 and 1984 were followed and their health was assessed over the years. Of the children who were obese, they were twice as likely to die from obesity-related disease BEFORE THE AGE OF 55.

I see a fair number of overweight children in my practice and parents are always surprised to hear that their children already suffer from high blood pressure, high cholesterol and elevated glucose levels (diabetes and pre-diabetes). These diseases are common in the 65 and older crowd, but they have trickled down to the forties and the thirthy-somethings and now in the last 10 years we are seeing them more and more often in our children.

There is no easy fix. In order to help our children get healthier and stay healthier, the whole family has to eat healthier. For example, my son in college is very thin, to the point of being underweight (where did THAT come from??). Even though he was the only one in the family who DIDN’T need to lose weight, he still snacked on vegetables and ate the same meals as the rest of us did. His portions were always larger, but it was the same food. Even though he didn’t need to lose weight, he still needed to get his whole grains to help prevent diabetes and his fiber to help prevent diverticulosis and colon cancer.

Everyone in the family deserves to eat healthier, to prevent certain diseases and maximize life expectancy. First Lady Michelle Obama is on the right track with her “Let’s Move” childhood obesity campaign, www.letsmove.gov. Let’s not raise our next generation to have a shorter life expectancy for the first time in US history.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on March 8, 2010 under Healthy Living
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Treat the underlying condition

According to the CDC, Obesity related illnesses cost this country about $147 billion each year and is continuing to rise. The CDC adds that medical care for obese patients is about 43% higher than for non-obese patients. These numbers don’t really surprise me. My patients routinely come to see me with over 10 medications, and many of them are on over 20 medications. Let’s say half of these meds cost $4 and the other half are tier 2 co-pay, around $30. That’s $170 per month, or @2,040 per year. This doesn’t include office visits, ER visits, hospitalizations or surgeries.

Ask any primary care physician outside of Hollywood and they will agree that more than half of their office visits are for obesity related, preventable diseases. Examples included diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, back/knee/hip pain, heartburn, etc. Yes, people who are at their ideal weight can also suffer from these medical problems, but it is much more common to see these health issues in overweight patients.

As physicians, we keep prescribing more and more medications for these problems, but I would suggest another approach. How about instead of physicians throwing more pills (and money) at the problem, we just make you healthier instead? Treat the underlying condition, and the other health issues go away (or at least improve). I can testify that after losing about 100lbs, I no longer needed blood pressure or cholesterol medication. My blood sugars which were elevated and just at the edge of diabetes are perfectly normal now. My constant back pain is now an occasional twinge. Even though I am older, I am healthier, and I am enjoying life more than ever.

And, I spend a lot less on my healthcare than I used to.

Posted by Dr. Caren Beasley on March 4, 2010 under Healthy Living
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