No fad diets here
By Jennifer Colton - Argus Observer
Thursday, March 29, 2007 4:20 PM PDT
Ontario - From syrups to shakes, to pills to grapefruit, people are always looking for the magic pill to lose weight, but avoiding fad diets is the focus of the American Dietetic Association’s National Nutrition Month.
Every March, the association sponsors National Nutrition Month, with a different theme each year. For 2007, the theme is “100 percent Fad Free.”
“Everyone wants what’s easy,” Tiffany Scott, Holy Rosary Medical Center registered dietitian, said. “Generally, a fad diet is not something you can maintain for a long time. Once you go off that diet, you’re going to gain the weight back if not more.”
According to American Dietetic Association statistics, 95 percent of dieters fail to keep the weight lost during a diet from returning.
Popular fad diets today include the Atkins diet and the South Beach diet, Scott said.
“A lot of people won’t allow themselves to eat certain things (while dieting), like they’ll cut out all sweets,” Scott said. “But everything is good in moderation. It’s really a simple formula. You have to burn more calories than you take in. Everything you eat makes calories and every step you take burns a calorie. You lose more weight if you move more.”
Everyone should also eat a “sensible” diet that includes all food groups, Scott said. Portion control is a key element to eating healthy while losing weight, she said, and HRMC uses a large collection of rubber food models to show what a proper portion size is.
“It (the rubber food) really helps people to understand portion control,” Scott said. Trying to have a healthy lifestyle rather than “dieting,” can also help take the stress off the individual, Scott said.
“Sometimes it’s easier to measure your goals by cholesterol or body mass rather than in so many pounds,” she said. “If you take your focus off of being so obsessed with a number it helps. When you change your focus to be healthier, it takes the stress off and makes it more doable.”
Throughout the month, the dietitians at HRMC have hung posters, set up table tents and handed out nutrition and fad diet information.
HRMC will also cover fad dieting as part of the “Create Your Weight,” a nine-week adult weight management program that kicked off Monday.
Program topics will include guidelines for weight management, benefits of weight loss, the role of exercise, food shopping and labels, dining out, recipe modification and nutrition.
“We had a few people asking for those types of classes,” Scott said. “Especially after the holidays, the first of the year.”
The class has no minimum or maximum participation requirements, but it does cost $250. For more information on Create Your Weight, contact Scott, who will instruct the class, at (541) 881-7192.
Debby Hampton, also an HRMC registered dietitian, said learning how to spot a food fad is key, including watching for “unreasonable or exaggerated claims that eating — or not eating — specific foods, nutrient supplements or combinations of foods may cure disease or offer quick weight loss.”
Hampton also offered these tips to avoid fad diets:
— develop an eating plan for lifelong health, not for the moment
— choose foods sensibly by looking at the big picture, a single food won’t make or break a healthful diet
— find your balance between food and physical activity
— food and nutrition misinformation can have harmful effects on your health and well-being, contact a registered dietitian to develop a plan that meets your individual needs.
“Moderation, physical activity and eating a sensible diet are really the main parts (to a healthy lifestyle),” Scott said.
The American Dietetic Association, founded in 1917, is the nation’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals, and sponsors National Nutrition Month to educate people on the importance of developing sound eating and physical activity habits, according to the Web site.
More information on the American Dietetic Association and National Nutrition Month is available at www.eatright.org.
Cody W. Ables wrote on May 16, 2008 11:04 PM:
Here is something that we should all read. This is a letter from an angry woman in New Jersey regarding the War in Iraq and all of the war’s negative publicity. Pay attention.
'Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?
Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania?
Did nearly three-thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?
And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was 'desecrated' when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?...Well, I don't. I don't care at all.
I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia .
I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.
I'll care when the cowardly so-called 'insurgents' in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.
I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don't care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don't care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed 'special' food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don't care.
Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!
If you don't agree, then by all means quit reading. Should you choose to do so, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:
'Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem' -- Ronald Reagan
I have another quote that I would like to add
'If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.' Also by.. Ronald Reagan
One last thought for the day:
In case we find ourselves starting to believe all the Anti-American sentiment and negativity, we should remember England 's Prime Minister Tony Blair's words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America , he said: 'A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.'
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I.
Important for us all!!!!
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM. AMEN!’
I hope you take this woman’s viewpoint into consideration. It closely parallels my own. As I begin my journey in becoming a soldier of the greatest country in the world, hearing this woman’s words sets my heart at ease. It is warming to know that there are people in this great country who still care about those men and women who have no choice.
Cody W. Ables
U.S. Air Force Academy 2012
"