agosto 3, 2007
Filling Up With Less
Vale a pena a leitura:
Filling Up With Less
Damien Donck for Newsweek Baked is Better: Just 20 french fries pack the same number of calories as a baked potato with Cheddar cheese and broccoli |
By Joan Raymond
Newsweek
March 19, 2007 issue – Jill O’Nan used to eat just one meal a day. But, as the joke goes, that meal began in the morning and didn’t end until she went to sleep at night. As a freelance writer, O’Nan had no set meal schedule. “If McDonald’s delivered, I probably wouldn’t have left my house,” says O’Nan, 45, who has battled the bulge since she was a child.
With her supersize appetite, O’Nan’s weight spiraled to 360 pounds. She tried dieting, but nothing worked. O’Nan did some research and stumbled across a little-known book called “Volumetrics” (harpercollins.com), which promised that she could manage her weight by choosing foods that the program calls “low in energy density,” foods that make you feel satiated, or full, but that are also low in calories. She swapped her serving of fast-food fries for an even larger portion of boiled redskin potatoes in a garlic-dill sauce.
She rediscovered her pressure cooker and started to make homemade meals, including soups and chili seasoned with dark chocolate. In four years she shed an impressive 220 pounds. “I never thought I would be able to get to a healthy weight without feeling deprived, miserable and hungry,” says O’Nan, who now wears a size 8.
Volumetrics may be the most popular diet you’ve never heard of. It doesn’t have the zing of The Zone or the image of bronzed beauties from South Beach. But it’s been gaining currency with nutritionists and dieters alike for its simplicity and the fact that it’s backed by recent peer-reviewed studies at a time when other diet plans have been losing favor.
Fighting hunger is the goal of Volumetrics, developed by Barbara Rolls, a professor of nutritional sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. Rolls has researched everything from thirst to portion control. But it’s her study of satiety that is giving her street cred with dieters like O’Nan.
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Damien Donck for Newsweek Go Bananas: Fruit chips may be healthier than potato chips, but nothing beats whole fruit |
What Rolls found is that feeling full is intrinsically linked to certain foods. The nutritional principle behind those foods is called energy density, or ED. It may sound counterintuitive, but foods low in energy density make you feel fuller. Think fruits, soups and vegetables, all of which have high water content, “the secret ingredient” to satiety, says Rolls. (But drinking water alone won’t help you feel full; it will only quench your thirst.) Rolls’s research shows that a person eats about the same volume, or weight, of food every day. The trick is to fill your plate with low-calorie foods that leave you satisfied.
The good news is that Rolls isn’t into deprivation, wanting to morph us all into plant-munching vegans. “Sound nutrition and weight management is all about choices,” she says.
Her research shows just how powerful those choices can be. In a one-year study of Volumetrics, 97 obese women were divided into two groups. One group was taught the principles of Volumetrics and ate low-ED foods. The second group was told to restrict portion sizes and reduce fat. Neither group had to count calories or fat grams. What Rolls discovered is that both groups reduced fat intake and lost weight. But the group of women who had the low-ED foods actually ate a greater quantity of food over a year, but lost more weight—about 20 pounds, compared with 15 pounds for the fat- and portion-reducing group. They also fell in line with the USDA’s Food Guide Pyramid (mypyramid.gov) recommendations: five servings of fruits and veggies a day (5aday.gov).
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Damien Donck for Newsweek When More is Less: Two cups of a fruit smoothie (with nonfat, sugar-free yogurt) is the equivalent of half a cup of a chocolate milkshake made with whole milk and ice cream |
That’s what makes nutritionists go gaga for Volumetrics. At New York Presbyterian’s Comprehensive Weight Control Program, Volumetrics principles are taught to dietitians and physicians, who, in turn, use these principles to prescribe diets to their patients. “Trying to get people to go on a diet when they are hungry is very difficult,” says Dr. Louis Aronne, who heads the program. “Volumetrics allows people to feel a sense of satiety.”
It’s not that tough to figure out the energy density of foods. (In Europe, Canada and other parts of the world, energy density is listed on the food label.) Simply divide the calories in one serving by its weight in grams. For example, one serving of creamy peanut butter is 190 calories and 32 grams, giving an ED of 5.9. Rule of thumb: eat all you want of foods that wind up with an ED rating of below 1, which includes most fruits and veggies. Foods with ED ratings of 1 to 2, like pasta and low-fat, skinless meats, are also good. Foods with higher-ED ratings, like ice cream and fries, should be limited, but not abandoned, “especially if you enjoy them,” says Rolls.
In her newest book (“The Volumetrics Eating Plan”; volumetricseatingplan.com), Rolls gives detailed recipes, developed in her lab, that increase the portion size but lower the ED of traditional faves like risotto (decrease butter and cheese and add more vegetables, and you can fill your plate) and coq au vin (use skinless chicken instead of dark meat, use Canadian bacon instead of regular, decrease oil and add veggies).
If you want to reduce your calories even more, eat a salad before dinner, according to Rolls’s study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in 2004. Folks who were served three cups of salad totaling 100 calories before their pasta lunch ate 12 percent fewer calories overall, compared with when they were served no salad. And don’t forget soup: another study published in Obesity Research in 2005 showed that folks who snacked on soup twice a day over a one-year period lost 50 percent more weight than those who snacked on high-ED foods like pretzels.
If all this sounds too good to be true, remember, the program is just a few years old, and long-term studies have been small. And unlike many commercial weight-loss programs (Rolls is a medical adviser for Jenny Craig and has adapted a cookbook for the program), there is no support group for Volumetrics followers. Research shows that support is a factor for long-term success.
That’s why some folks like Linda Gilpin of Pictou, Nova Scotia, who picked up Rolls’s first book last year and managed to shed 50 pounds, seek help at the Internet site 3fatchicks.com. (Other good sources: diettalk.com, weightlossbuddy.com, weightcircles.com.) “I eat so well now, and I feel full, but anyone who has ever tried to lose weight and keep it off knows you need some kind of support,” says Gilpin. “It helps to have somebody be on your side.” And something on your plate, other than one carrot stick.
With Heidi Richter
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
junho 19, 2007
Bento Box
Achei esse site o maximo! Pra falar a verdade ainda nao li com calma, mas ja posso garantir que a informacao vale a pena:
For Lunch, a Bento Box Holds The Promise of Harmonic Nutrition
Based on traditional Japanese cuisine, the concept of goshiki (five colors) calls for the cook to include at least one dish from each color group, thereby creating a meal that meets various nutritional needs and is pleasing to behold.
Red or orange
Carrots, kabocha squash, red bell peppers, umeboshi (pickled apricots), kidney beans, dried cranberries, akajiso (also known as red shiso), kidney beans, adzuki beans, tomatoes, salmon, pork, beef, oranges, tangerines, watermelon, strawberries, raspberries, apples, salsa
White
Rice, enoki mushrooms, daikon, tofu and soy products, caulifl ower, feta cheese, white beans, potatoes, bamboo shoots, turnips, renkon lotus root, white fish, chicken, onions, white sesame seeds, bean sprouts, pears, leeks, garbanzo beans, hummus, jicama
Black (also purple or brown)
Black olives, mushrooms (shiitake, maitake, portabello), sea vegetables of kombu, hijiki, wakame or nori, black sesame seeds, eggplant, gobo (burdock root), red cabbage, grapes, prunes, raisins, black cherries, grape leaves, figs, plums, blackberries, blueberries, purple cabbage, tapenade
Yellow
Pineapple, yellow beans, eggs, sweet potatoes, sweet corn, grapefruit, nectarines, peaches, lemons, yuba, squash, plantains, banana
Green
Broccoli, spinach, green beans, green bell pepper, cucumbers, asparagus, aojiso (also known as green shiso), fava beans, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli rabe, edamame, scallions, nira (chives), kiwi, celery, kale, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, pesto
The Second Rule
Try to employ goho, or five cooking methods. Choose from grilling, frying, simmering, steaming, pickling and boiling.
SOURCE: Yukari Pratt
junho 12, 2007
Dicas simples para uma vida saudavel!
Achei esse site EXCELENTE: 321Recipes.com: Simple Health tips, weight loss diet tips, prevent cancer
Seja um Entrepreneur Saudavel!
Nao vejo a hora de TODAS as empresas se engajarem nessa ideia:
Be a Healthy Entrepreneur
Want a healthy company? Start by focusing on yourself.
URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/worklife/healthandfitness/article179022.html
For many entrepreneurs, it’s easy to ignore the warning signs that you’re unhealthy–much less take notice if your business isn’t well. When you’re so busy that you can’t remember the last time you read a book, sat down for a meal or spent a night watching useless TV, then your health may be the last thing on your mind.
But ignoring your unhealthy habits and their subsequent risk factors is dangerous–not only to you, but also to your business. Lack of sleep and exercise, unhealthy foods and high stress won’t keep you performing at your best. Your business is only as healthy as you are. “I can’t be effective [as an entrepreneur] if my body isn’t as healthy as possible,” says Jonathan Fields, a serial entrepreneur who started New York City-based Sonic Yoga in 2001 following a frightening emergency surgery brought on by the stress of his career as an attorney.
With sales approaching $1 million and two locations, Fields, 41, now incorporates yoga, meditation and breathing exercises, as well as mountain biking and other outdoor activities, into his routine four or five days a week. He also keeps his diet well-rounded, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and avoiding red meat and pork but allowing the occasional indulgence.
For his instructors, Fields promotes wellness beyond their own yoga classes. Although the majority of his instructors are part-time, independent contractors, Fields gives them all unlimited memberships to Sonic Yoga so that they can enjoy the benefits of yoga and meditation on their own. As a result, he’s witnessed heightened productivity and morale. “I encourage them to make sure they’re making time for themselves,” says Fields. “As their boss, I’d like to see people work hard and give me everything they’ve got, but I also know that to get the most out of people, they need to be healthy.”
And while you may not be in the business of offering a healthy product or service, you can still take some lessons from those who do. Consider Bear Naked founders Brendan Synnott, 28, and Kelly Flatley, 27. The partners’ $20 million granola company is all about natural, healthy ingredients–not only in their products, but also in their company kitchen. “Our refrigerator is always stocked with fresh fruit, cartons of yogurt, cheese sticks, baby carrots,” says Flatley, who co-founded the Norwalk, Connecticut, business in 2002. “A healthy snack is always available.”
The partners also exercise regularly, both on their own and with employees. Last year, for instance, they took a company trip and spent a few days mountain biking, playing basketball and whitewater rafting–activities that not only did their bodies good, but also helped them bond as a team. Like Fields, the Bear Naked partners can attest to the benefits of their company-wide wellness initiatives. “We make them better employees and ultimately more productive,” says Flatley.
Adds Synnott, “I would never understand why you would want to feed your employees [candy bars].” After all, who’s more likely to be alert: the employee who snacks on fruits and vegetables, or the one who frequents the vending machine for greasy chips?
In the interest of staying healthy, don’t forget to make time for those quiet moments alone, even as you’re guiding your company and your employees toward wellness. “For me, being healthy is a bigger picture than just eating well and [exercising],” notes Flatley. “It’s taking time to relax with a book or sitting on the sun porch.”
For Fields, it can mean just a few minutes of meditation, even when he’s at his busiest. And those few minutes can be golden. “The thought of just sitting still and not doing something for 10 seconds is brutal,” he says. “But it’s hugely beneficial for clarifying ideas and having breakthroughs, so it’s worth the effort.”
Here are some things you can do to improve the health of your business:
- Encourage employee wellness. Some companies even provide incentives for sticking to a wellness program, such as prizes and monetary rewards.
- Provide healthy snacks. Even if all you have is a vending machine, stock it with healthy things.
- Get fit. You’re a role model for employees. They look to you for direction within your company. Why wouldn’t they look to you as a model of healthy living?
- Meditate and relieve stress. Even if it’s only for a few minutes a day, take time to do something you really enjoy that doesn’t have anything to do with your business. It can lead to moments of clarity, during which you unleash the creative ideas within.
Copyright © 2007 Entrepreneur.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
Cargill e Coca-Cola se juntam para criar novo adocante
Ja faz um tempinho que nao passo por aqui, mas essa reportagem eu tinha que deixar registrada:
Cargill, Coca-Cola team up on new sweetener
Their new product is sweeter than sugar and may lead to new low- or no-calorie foods. But past studies raised health concerns.
An ultra-secret project begun years ago by two corporate giants broke into the open Thursday as the Coca-Cola Co. and Cargill Inc. announced they have developed a new sweetener from the stevia plant, a South American bush known to locals as honey leaf.The announcement could upend the world of sweeteners in which aspartame, sucralose and other concoctions are valued for their ability to trick the tongue with sweet tastes that have nothing to do with natural sugar. Unlike competitors, the new zero-calorie sweetener can claim to be all-natural.
“This has been a closely held secret for a while,” said Zanna McFerson, business director for Cargill Sweetness Solutions.
That division handles Cargill’s roughly 20 sweeteners.
The two companies said their scientists isolated an organic compound called rebiana found in the leaves of the plant, using taste panels to determine the best tasting version of the plant.
“It’s a clean, sweet taste,” McFerson said.
It would be available in one year at the soonest in countries such as Japan, where stevia is already a widely used tabletop sweetener. The sweetener, known for now as rebiana, would appeal to consumers who want a natural alternative and to companies seeking relief from the pressure that ethanol has put on the price of high fructose corn syrup.
But whether rebiana appears on U.S. food shelves anytime soon is another question.
The stevia plant and its derivatives do not have Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for use as a food additive in the United States, and as recently as 1995 there was an import ban. The FDA has turned down as many as three requests since 1989 from food companies to use the plant. The ban was lifted in 1995, but stevia-derived sweeteners only have approval as a dietary supplement in the United States, not a food additive.
A 1985 National Academy of Sciences study raised concerns over stevia and possible liver damage. Some studies have also linked it to infertility in men.
The sweetener has won unfavorable reviews from several major regulatory bodies, including the World Health Organization, the European Union and the Canadian version of the FDA, the Food Inspection Agency. A WHO study conducted last year found no evidence that stevia was toxic, but said more study was needed to determine the acceptable daily intake level.
Yet stevia sweeteners are approved for food use in 12 countries including China, Japan and Brazil, and it has many supporters in the dietary supplement industry who say it’s the victim of bad science, not dangerous leaves.
McFerson disputes the findings of the 1985 study, saying it was done “quite a while ago” and that the FDA’s decision hasn’t been challenged because it’s difficult to win regulatory approval for a new food ingredient, regardless of its testing.
The company expects to show through peer-reviewed studies that rebiana should win FDA approval.
A call to the FDA was not immediately returned. The agency published a letter last year stating that “available toxicological information on stevia is inadequate to demonstrate its safety as a food additive or to affirm its status as” safe.
It has shown up in foods imported from Japan, including pickled radishes and seafood, but any food items containing the sweetener are subject to FDA seizure.
A native plant
The sweetener comes from the leaves of the stevia plant, commonly found in Central and South America. The variety of plant that produces sugar is known as stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, named for the scientist who discovered stevia more than 100 years ago. Some 80 percent of the stevia production is in China today.
Demand for alternative sweeteners will grow to $1.1 billion by 2010, mainly in diet soft drinks and table top uses, according to market researcher Freedonia Group. Sucralose (Splenda) and aspartame (Nutrasweet) will continue their reign as the dominant sweeteners, but the small market share held by stevia and agave nectar will register “strong advances,” the study said.
The search for a new sweetener goes back years at both companies, but rebiana came to the fore about two years ago, said a Cargill spokeswoman. “We have been looking in this space for years, for decades actually,” said McFerson. A long-standing relationship with Coca-Cola had both companies talking about the development of a new sweetener when a plan came together to pursue stevia, she said.
A spokeswoman for Coca-Cola said the $24 billion company has exclusive rights to use the sweetener in beverages, while Cargill plans to use it in food. The sweetener will not taste exactly like any other sweetener already on the market, so it’s unlikely to show up in Coca-Cola.
“We’re not changing the recipe; we learned that lesson,” said a Coke spokesperson Thursday, referring to the New Coke fiasco.
But it could appear in other drinks manufactured by Coca-Cola or in Cargill food in as little as a year in the countries where stevia is now approved.
Cargill has one other zero-calorie natural sweetener, known as erythritol, in its portfolio of food ingredients, but it’s not as sweet as sugar.
Matt McKinney • 612-673-7329 • mckinney@startribune.com
© 2007 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.
abril 4, 2007
O que fazer para o jantar?
Sem inspiracao? Tente essa webpage: Smart Living (washingtonpost.com)
março 14, 2007
Contagem de calorias: Restaurantes que frequentamos nos EUA
Somos todos filhos de Deus e cometemos o pecado da gula de vez em quando… atire a primeira pedra quem nunca comeu em alguma cadeia de restaurantes americanos.
Achei essa lista de grande utilidade publica:
Vc vai ficar surpreso(a) ao descobrir que “Fresh Chicken & Brocoli Pasta” do Ruby Tuesday tem 2061 calorias. O nome do prato parece inocente ne?
março 13, 2007
Falta de tempo… a melhor desculpa para nao se alimentar bem!
Esse artigo do Yahoo! Health vai direto ao ponto. Explica de forma clara tudo aquilo que eu penso e acredito sobre a dieta americana: nao invente desculpas para nao se exercitar ou comer bem, nao “economize” porcamente comprando produtos processados ao inves de naturais, nao coma besteira para aliviar seus problemas, enfim… vale a pena a leitura!
março 12, 2007
Essa tal de High Fructose Corn Syrup
Quando eu me mudei para os EUA, eu sempre procurei prestar atencao nos rotulos dos produtos que nos compramos no supermercado. Eu sempre lia “Corn Syrup”, “High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)” e nao dava muita bola, pois eu, inocentemente, achava que se tinha a palavra “corn” era saudavel. Mas conversando com uns amigos nossos brasileiros que tambem moram aqui, e lendo o blog da Luciana, eu fui descobrindo aos poucos o mal que esse ingrediente nos causa. Nada mais eh do que um xarope a base de milho que eles usam para adocar (e conservar por mais tempo) praticamente todos os produtos do nosso cotidiano (leia-se iced tea, barrinha de cereal, cereais, ate molho de soja!). Eh uma alternativa mais barata do que a cana-de-acucar e o acucar extraido da beterraba (sugar beet), alem de ser um incentivo para os fazendeiros. Alguns especialistas apontam o consumo excessivo de HFCS como uma das causas da obesidade nos EUA.
Venho lendo varios artigos e reportagens sobre o tema e resolvi postar um resumo do que eu achei interessante:
- Michael Pollan’s Food for Thought
- Is high-fructose corn syrup making us fat? It’s a sticky subject
- Does High Fructose Corn Syrup have to be in everything? By Wilton D. Alston
