Healthy Eating

A University of Iowa researcher has found that parents with kids at home eat more fat than adults without children.

Dr. Helena Laroche performed a survey of 6,600 adults living with and without children.

And, sure enough, adults living with kids ate 5 more grams of fat each day than the adults without kids.

Why did this research produce these results. Well, here are the theories proposed by the researchers:

1. Parents are under more time pressure so they are more prone to opt for snacks and convenience foods.

2. Parents buy high fat foods for their kids (hot dogs, macaroni and cheese, pizza) and then end up eating what their kids eat. In other words, parent’s eating habits are shaped by their children’s food choices.

3. Parents end up eating the food left over by their children — even after completing their own meal.

Which of these reasons is it? No one knows. In fact, the reason might not be any of these three.

But, that doesn’t stop the researchers from guessing and it doesn’t stop the media from reporting on their guesses.

What gets lost in the media coverage is that ALL the adults — where they had kids living with them or not — ate more fat than what is recommended by healthy eating guidelines.

This is interesting because over the last forty years fat consumption by Americans, as a percentage of total calories, has dropped significantly (from over 40% in the 1960s to less than 34% today).

In reading this study, the clear message is that we must cut our fat consumption even more — and that parents with kids have the most cutting to do.

All this despite little evidence that American’s current level of fat consumption is unhealthy — and a fair amount of evidence that certain subgroups of the population (pregnant women, growing kids) are negatively impacting their health by eating too little fat.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

Given their label you’d kind of expect that “nutrition” bars would be nutritious.

That’s probably why 33 million households in the United States buy nutrition bars and shakes on a regular basis.

But do American’s really know what they are eating?

According to a recent survey by Kelton Research of 1,000 individuals the answer is a no.

Quick. which has more sugar — a Clif Bar (crunchy peanut butter) or a Krispy Kreme doughnut?

Well, it turns out the Clif Bar has almost twice as much sugar (18 grams) as the doughnut (10 grams). If you got this wrong, don’t feel bad. More than 50% of the respondents in the survey also were incorrect.

So which product is healthier? Since sugar, along with calories and fat, ranks in the top three most important things people look for on a nutrition label, you might expect people would say the Krispy Kreme doughnut.

What?? How could a doughnut be healthier than a “nutrition” bar.

It’s not. In fact, neither product is “healthier” than the other. The reality is that all REAL foods are “healthy,” so we should worry a lot less about which foods are good and which foods are bad.

The question isn’t if a food is healthy or not healthy — instead, when selecting which foods to eat, you should consider the REALNESS of the food and if you are selecting a wide variety of foods.

When I look at a doughnut or a nutrition bar, the first thing I consider is if the item is a REAL food. In other words, is it made up of substances that otherwise exist in nature (e.g., real sugar, real fat) or are its components fabricated (e.g., high fructose corn syrup, trans fat)? I’m pretty sure my body can deal with REAL foods since humans have been exposed to these substances for millions of years. However, I’m much less confident that the human physiology knows what to do with these manufactured substances that have only been around for a few decades.

If I really want a doughnut, I eat one. But I look for a doughnut that’s made the way my grandmother made doughnuts — that consist of real foods and that taste wonderful.

As far as nutrition bars, I must say that my body rarely (actually never) craves such a product — so I rarely eat them. But, if I ever did, I’d look for one made with real foods which, in my experience, is hard to find.

One more thing — guess who sponsored this survey about the sugar content of nutrition bars? It was Atkins Nutritionals — the maker of “nutrition” bars that are promoted as having less sugar than most brands but “packed with protein and fiber.” Their goal in funding this study was to convince people to read food labels and pick the nutrition bar with less sugar because that will be the “healthier” bar.

They should be ashamed.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

In a previous blog I discussed how trans-fat has been proven to be bad for your health.

In fact, there are efforts to ban this manufactured substance in several countries and US cities because the evidence for the health problems it causes are so strong.

Now, a new study by researchers at Wake Forest University suggests that trans-fat might be a even a bigger health problem than anyone thought.

These researchers fed two groups of monkeys, over a six year period, a calorie-controlled diet. Both groups were fed exactly the same number of calories.

The only difference in the diet between the two groups was the type of fat which made up 8% of the calories consumed. In one group, the fat was olive oil and, in the other group, the fat was trans-fat.

You’d expect that the weight of the monkeys in the two groups would be the same after six years. The ate exactly the same amount of calories so it doesn’t even seem possible that the monkey’s weight would be different.

Well, surprise, surprise!

The monkeys that were eating trans-fats gained FOUR TIMES more weight than the olive oil eaters! And, worse, the fat that was gained settled in their abdomen (see November 1st post on exercise and visceral fat to learn why this is an issue).

How is this possible? I have no idea — but that’s what the researchers found.

You can read a more in-depth review of this study at this link:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/521041/

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness

If you’ve reached this page and are not familiar with me, I encourage you to review the About Allen page to gain some understanding of where I’m coming from. If you do, you’ll learn that I’m on a personal mission to discredit the mainstream and fad beliefs about weight loss that have so-obviously failed us (and which are totally unsupported by the evidence) – and to convince the world there is a completely different approach to losing weight that actually works due to its precise alignment with the true nature of human physiology. To learn more about this mission, please visit Truths Publishing.

This blog is one component of my efforts that’s focused on nutrition and fitness. Here I review recent media reports related to these topics and try to clarify the confusing, contradictory and inaccurate information that’s so prevalent. My goal if for you to understand the fundamental and unchanging truths about nutrition and exercise so you can stop worrying about doing the wrong thing and enjoy optimal health and fitness.
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I’m sure you’ve seen the news that the health departments in New York and Chicago are considering a total ban on restaurant foods that contain trans-fats. You may not know that Denmark has passed legislation and Canada is considering legislation that eliminates trans-fat from food supplies.

What’s going on here?

If you are as old or older than me, then you may remember how, way back in the 50s, we were all told to quit eating butter and use margarine instead. The assumption was that the vegetable fat in margarine is healthier than the animal fat in butter.

What we weren’t told is that the fat in margarine isn’t actually vegetable oil. Rather, it’s a manufactured substance that takes vegetable oil and then modifies it via a process called hydrogenation to lengthen its shelf life and increase its flavor stability. I guess no one imagined that feeding people a manufactured product which doesn’t otherwise exist in nature would cause any problems.

Certainly, the fast-food and snack-food companies didn’t consider the possibility of any negative health effects. Instead, in the 1980s, in response to pressure to reduce the level of saturated fats, these companies started replacing the real fat they were using with this vegetable-based fabricated fat (now called “trans-fat”). Since then, its use has increased to the point where it’s now found in over 35% of the products are supermarket shelves and it represents over 2.5% of our total calorie consumption.

Sadly, up until January 2006 when the FDA started requiring trans-fat to be listed on food labels, it was impossible to know which foods had trans-fat and which didn’t.

Well, guess what? — the nutrition experts and food companies were wrong. Now, after 50 years of being told trans-fat is OK and consuming tons of it, researchers have discovered that this manufactured fat is terrible for our health.

What should we learn from this? Two things:

1. We should be very skeptical about what the “experts” tell us about good nutrition.

2. We should be very cautious about eating substances that don’t otherwise exist in nature. Real food is much safer bet than fabricated foods.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness