What are Twinkies and weight loss doing in the same sentence? Well, a diet consisting largely of convenience snack cakes (such as the beloved Twinkie) helped my friend and professor of nutrition Dr. Mark Haub lose weight and improve his health.

In this episode, Dr. Haub shares his experience on his “Twinkie Diet” and delves into difficult questions about weight, health, exercise, and how we can experience wellbeing.

Dr. Mark Haub received his bachelors degree in psychology from Fort Hays State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in exercise science from the University of Kansas.  He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in geriatric nutrition in the Department of Geriatrics from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and currently is an Associate Professor in the Department of Human Nutrition at Kansas State University where he conducts research to better understand the impact of food on human health and teaches courses pertaining to obesity and substrate metabolism.

I’m excited to bring you the conclusion of my interview with Dinneen Diette, the founder of Eat Without Guilt. We delved into the topics of mindful vs. mindless eating, the stress around health and nutrition in this country, and how we all can have a more loving relationship with food and our bodies.

I encourage you to check out Dinneen’s website and all the wonderful ways that she has helped people to ditch diets and guilt.

 

 

For more information on French parenting and the French food culture, I recommend reading:

1- Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman

2- French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon

I’d love to hear your comments–you can leave them at the bottom of this page or email me at [email protected].  You can also rate or review my podcast here.

On today’s episode, we are talking with Dinneen Diette.  Dinneen is the founder of Eat Without Guilt. She and I met on Twitter and have a very similar approach to nutrition. We are all about making peace with food, weight, exercise, and your body.  I hope that you find our talk helpful on your journey of mindful, intuitive eating.

I encourage you to check out Dinneen’s website and all the wonderful ways that she has helped people to ditch diets and guilt.

 

 

During the episode, I also mentioned two different books that you might want to read:

1- Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman

2- French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billon

Let me know what you think!

It sure can seem like we have a food addiction. Intense cravings for sweet, salty, and fatty foods abound. Sales of fast food, chips, cookies, and soda outweigh fruits and veggies by far. Do we have an actual addiction or is something else going on here?

[divider]

Transcript for Are You Addicted To Food?

Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann. Today I’m going to be looking at whether you could be addicted to food.  As a disclaimer, note that I am not a medical doctor and am unable to make diagnoses.

If you’ve noticed, it seems like food can be addicting, but not just any food.  I wouldn’t call apples or cauliflower addictive, but chocolate and chips certainly would fit the description.

 

“Addiction” Defined

To start, it would be helpful to describe “addiction”.  Merriam-Webster defines addiction as “a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal”; Collins English Dictionary describes addiction as “the condition of being abnormally dependent on some habit”; Wikipedia specifically defines Behavioral addiction as a “recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user themselves to their individual health, mental state, or social life. There may be biological and psychological factors contributing to these addictions”.  So, in hopefully more clear terminology, we would describe food addiction as being an obsessive, overwhelming, compelling need to eat certain foods even when you recognize the physical consequences (i.e. weight gain, lethargy, gas, stomach pain, etc.), accompanied by a tolerance to a certain amount of that food (meaning you need more to satisfy you).  This addiction may be related to unmet needs, emotional lability, current or past life stressors, etc.

Lets get specific.  Many people think that they are addicted to sugar because they notice that they have intensely strong, overpowering cravings to eat sugary foods (like candy, cakes, soda); over time they need more sugar to get the same amount of pleasure or relaxation or positive effect; they feel a lack of self-control and continue to eat and overeat sugary foods even when it gives them headaches and other physical symptoms; they notice that they turn to sugar when they are angry, sad, or bored; they eat dessert and binge in secret; or they recall that their dad ate a lot of sugar-laden foods after he came home from work.

Before we go on, let me clarify that occasional food cravings or a strong desire for a salty or sugary food is not what I’m discussing today.  For times when you feel that you’re going to eat a whole bag of cookies if you’re alone and bored, there are strategies that may help you like: going out for a walk, calling a friend, painting your nails, not keeping trigger foods in the house, doing a self-care activity, etc.

Contributors to Food Addiction

Let’s look at what might contribute to a food addiction.

Some argue that the environment is to blame, that over-consumption is a natural result of marketing of sugary products and the availability and accessibility of cheap foodstuffs (like fast food and soda).

Adding to that is the actual addictive experience of eating.  Quoting from “The Meaning of Addiction” by Dr. Stanton Peele, “People become addicted to experiences…it engages every aspect of a person’s functioning, starting with the rewards (as interpreted by the individual) that an involvement provides and the individual’s needs for these rewards.  The motivation to pursue the involvement, as compared with other involvements, is a function of an additional layer of social, situational, and personality variables.”  In other words, eating is an experience that has familiar, expected, and consistent rewards of “good feelings” in the ...

Enough with the overload of information about “unhealthy” foods and habits!  I want you to know that even supposedly “healthy” eating can be hazardous to your health.

[divider]

Transcript for Healthy Eating Could Kill You

Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.

I’m pretty sure you’ve never heard of “death by vegetables” or been told to be careful about eating too healthfully.  It may seem absurd to think that good food can kill us or that it is even possible to be so free from “issues” surrounding food that you would fall to the other side of the spectrum.

I’m here today to tell you that, yes, you can be too healthy.

Articles in the news, magazines, or online are informing us about disordered eating patterns that include overeating, binging, and restricting.  Some of these patterns have names like Binge Eating Disorder, Night Eating Syndrome, and Bulimia or Anorexia Nervosa.  Not so much attention, however, has been given to Orthorexia.

 

Orthorexia Nervosa

Orthorexia Nervosa, most commonly known as Orthorexia, is a condition in which people are obsessed with eating healthy food.  They typically are extremely rigid in what foods they will purchase and consume, and many will only shop at health food stores.  Unlike other disorders, which focus more on the quantity of food, people with Orthorexia are seeking a kind of purity through the quality or type of food they put in their bodies.  This varies depending on the person but may involve avoiding or abstaining from animal products or specific ingredients (like additives, colorings, preservatives, etc.).  Or, the person may insist on buying only organic foods with absolutely no processing or packaging.  As this progresses, the person’s diet becomes more and more restricted as fewer foods become acceptable.

Steven Bratman, a physician in Colorado, introduced this term in 1997 in an article entitled, “The Health Food Eating Disorder”.  He says that the behaviors and thinking involved in Orthorexia can become so extreme that malnutrition or even death can result.  Even if it doesn’t, this is not a healthy place to be.

 

The Cost of “Healthy” Eating

Think of all the time and energy it would take to be this concerned about the food you eat.  This has bypassed the region of “healthy” and has taken not only eating, but also grocery shopping and cooking to a new level.  The cost is enormous.  I’m not just talking about spending so much money to try to get products free of any sort of “bad” component, but I’m also talking about the cost of:

* giving up social engagements that surround a meal because the food is not healthy enough or because you don’t know every little thing that’s in it

* spending so much time thinking about, researching, buying, and cooking food

* worrying about what is healthy or how to become healthier

* the list goes on

Orthorexia aside, if being healthy or eating healthfully is taking up so much of your thoughts and energy during the day, it probably is counterproductive.  The stress over reaching a lofty level of health, the obsession with eating right, compulsive exercising–all these things can disrupt the peace and joy of living.  Think of how a certain picture of health and trying to attain that is making you unhealthy.  Choose to enjoy the process of eating, moving, and living.

I hope that this episode has been helpful and has encouraged you to choose balance, even in seeking good health.  As always, if you have any comments or questions, feel free to email me or go to my website.  Thanks again for listening and I’ll see you next time!

As we see rates of obesity and chronic diseases continue to grow, we also see more proposals for legislation over food.  The recent menu labeling laws are based on the assumption that “unhealthy” food choices stem from a lack of knowledge.  For the most part, we in the U.S. have information coming out of our ears.  So, will putting nutrition data on the menu result in healthier ordering on the part of the consumer?  Has it changed your meal choices?

[divider]

Transcript for Is Menu Labeling The Answer?

Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.  I recently received an email from a listener asking my opinion on food menu labeling laws.  The listener also inquired specifically about the most important nutrient information a consumer should notice when making a menu selection and how these restaurant changes will benefit consumers.

Here is my response:

 

What are the most important nutrient information a consumer should notice when making a menu selection?

I think the most important nutrients to pay attention to when eating out at restaurant are:

* Total Calories in the dish

* Total Fat, Saturated Fat,

* Sugar

* Fiber

* Total or Net Carbohydrates (for people with Diabetes)

 

The reason I put Calories first is because this is the main contributor to the issue of weight gain from eating out too often.  Yes, the lack of fiber is also an issue in satiety and satiation, but the main factor is the Caloric density of restaurant/fast-food meals.  People need to be aware of how many Calories they will be consuming if they eat the entire salad/entree/dessert/etc.

Though I don’t necessarily promote a low-fat diet across the board, it is better to eat naturally occurring plant fats (i.e. olives/olive oil, nuts/seeds, avocado, etc.) rather than animal fats and added fats.  It is important to choose foods with little added fat (in other words, keep the cooking oil to a minimum) and ones low in saturated fat (which is predominant in animal products like high-fat meat cuts and full-fat dairy: milk, cream, butter, and cheese).  Since saturated fat appears to be a prime suspect in raising total and LDL cholesterol, as well as contributing to atherosclerosis and heart disease in general, this should be limited.

Sugar is popping up in all sorts of packaged and pre-made foods, and in places we (or the consumer) wouldn’t ordinarily expect.  Salad dressings, sauces, marinades, glazes, and other hidden sources of sugar are often overlooked.  Sugar is a significant source of Calories, but is a nutrient-poor food, making it something to limit or watch out for.

Total fiber is a good stat to know because it shows whether the grain product in the dish is whole or refined.  Often restaurants use “fancy” and misleading terms like “multigrain, 9-grain, wheat…”, and most think that this means the dish is “healthy” and fiber-containing when that is often not the case.  The first ingredient in these products is usually enriched wheat (read “white”) flour.  We want to be choosing fiber for its many benefits not only to curb our Caloric intake, but also to help lower our cholesterol (soluble) and promote a healthy colon (insoluble).

Lastly, people with Diabetes who are counting Carbohydrates need to know how many exchanges (equivalent to 15g of carbs) are in the meal, especially if they are taking insulin.  Knowing the amount of carbohydrate can also be helpful for the general population in assessing whether this is a balanced meal, or if it is just a heavy load of carbs with little protein.

 

How do you think these restaurant changes will benefit consumers?

Menu labeling will benefit consumers if:

* The labeling is clear and accessible

* Consumers read the label

Many of us are all-too familiar with emotional eating, but what about emotional exercising?  Do you depend on exercise to deal with difficult emotions and the stressors of life?  Exercise can be part of a healthy lifestyle, but sometimes we take it too far.

[divider]

Emotional Exercising the Transcript

Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.

We’ve all heard of the term “Emotional Eating” and maybe we’re more familiar with it than we’d like to be. Emotional Eating is eating in response to either positive or negative emotions or as a way of ignoring or trying to cope with difficult emotions or situations.  Common examples include eating a lot at a celebratory party, downing a box of chocolates after a break-up, or mindlessly finishing a gallon of ice cream in anticipation of a confrontation with your boss.

But, what about “Emotional Exercising”? Have you ever exercised in response to anger, frustration, obsession, or guilt?  Have you ever been so excited that you just wanted to run as fast as you could (and not stop)?  Have you ever been overwhelmed with the demands and challenges of life that you wanted to start walloping on a punching bag?

Exercise is a way that we deal with emotions.  We know that exercise can have many benefits.  It can:

* Improve memory, learning, and brain function

* Help maintain or achieve a healthy weight

* Boost energy

* Increase immunity

* Help you sleep better

* Improve your lipid profile, lower your blood pressure, and reduce the risk for heart disease and stroke

* Help reduce symptoms of depression

* Enhance pain tolerance

* Improve your mood

It’s the last point that I want to look at more extensively today.  Exercise can be a healthy way to deal with stress and anxiety.

 

Let’s look briefly at the scientific evidence first

That “runner’s-high” that people claim to have (and many have been skeptical of) has actually been shown to be the result of endorphins released in the brain during running or other forms of endurance exercise.  Endorphins are natural opiods that work as neurotransmitters and attach to opiod receptors, producing the afore-mentioned effects. These endorphins work on the “emotion” centers of the brain (the limbic and prefrontal areas), which are also associated with euphoria from powerful music or a new romance.

In addition to endorphins, endocannabinoids like epinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine can also play into the benefits of mental wellbeing and getting pleasure from exercise.

The mood-boosting results of exercise can last a long time too!  A study presented in 2009 at the American College of Sports Medicine found that people exercising on a stationary bike showed improved mood for up to 12 hours after their workout.

 

Exercising Disorder: Too much of a good thing

Though it seems like exercise could be the best medicine for what ails you, there is such a thing as over-exercising, and it has its dangers.  Other than physical harm, including inflammation, oxidative stress, fatigue, amenorrhea in women, and increased risk for stress fractures and other injuries, my main worry is the potential for exercise compulsion or addiction that may occur.

An Exercise Disorder is similar to an eating disorder in that there is an obsession with achieving a certain body type through exercise and compliance with rigid eating rules.  There can also be a concurrent body dysmorphic disorder, also known as bigorexia in which people don’t see their body as it actually is, and think that they need to gain much more muscle.  A lot of time and energy is spent exercising; the person is consumed with thoughts about their body size; and there is a lot of accompanying guilt and anxiety about not being “good enough”, “big enough”, or “fit enough”.

So, how do YOU relate to exercise?

If someone asked you if you want to get fit, you might answer, “Sure, is there a pill for that?”  Exercise is sometimes a dreaded foe rather than a friend accompanying you on your path to wellness.  In this episode you will hear from fitness guru and “Get-Fit Guy“, Ben Greenfield, as he talks with me about not only physical fitness but also about nutrition and his new book that will help you get fit.

[divider]

Let me guess.  You started off the year brimming with hope that this time would be different.  This would be the year that you would meet your weight loss goal and discover that you actually really love to run…but it’s not going as planned.  I have some ideas on why your resolutions are harder to stick to than you thought they’d be.

[divider]

Transcript for Why You’re Not Losing Weight

Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking! I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.

 

New Year Resolutions and Losing Weight

This year is already off to a quick start, and people are holding tight to their resolutions for 2012.  Well, at least they’re trying too.

A poll, recently conducted by Thomson Reuters and NPR, found that 51% of respondents are promising to exercise more and 35% have committed to losing weight.  No surprise there, but how many of these survey respondents will be successful?  How many are already struggling with their die-hard pledge?

Here are some of my ideas on why you’re not losing weight or becoming a gym rat yet.

 

There’s more to this “resolution” business than willpower

In a recent New York Times magazine article entitled “The Fat Trap”, author Tara Parker-Pope talked about the different aspects of weight loss, and how there is a biological factor that seems to outweigh any amount of willpower that dieters may have.  What’s more, the yo-yo dieting cycle provoked by the incredibly influential diet industry alters our metabolism and levels of hormones affecting appetite and satiation, chiefly lowering our resting metabolic rate so that we require fewer Calories and therefore need to eat less and exercise more to maintain that lower weight let alone lose more.  On top of that, the “hunger hormone” Ghrelin gets revved up to try to get the body back to its “set” weight point, concurrent with a drop in hormones (Leptin and Peptide YY) that usually suppress hunger and increase metabolism levels.

The brain is largely involved in this whole process as well, specifically the dopamine center of rewards and reinforcement.  Too much of what the brain senses as deprivation and you may start feeling less inhibition in your eating, less motivation to do things that cause you pain (i.e. eating foods you don’t enjoy, exercising for hours a day), and more impulses or cravings for foods your brain has associated with positive feelings. Furthermore, there is the role of genetics that cannot be ignored.  Variation in the FTO gene can increase the risk of obesity from 30-60% depending on whether you have only one or two copies.

So if you’ve been beating yourself up mentally for not having enough willpower, stop it! There’s way more involved in your simple resolution than you think!

 

The stakes are too high.  In fact, they’re ridiculous.

You have visions, fantasies of what is going to happen when you reach a certain number on the scale, dress size, or level of fitness.  You are going to arrive.  You will be happy and worthy of all good things in life.  You will finally buy the clothes you want, walk with your head held high, and have more self-confidence and self-respect than you ever imagined.  That’s what I thought, you’re betting too much on this resolution.  You think that life is going to really “begin” once you’ve overcome this so-called vice.  I hate to burst your bubble, but that isn’t going to happen.  Sure, you will probably feel proud of your accomplishment and giddy that you fit in those pants, but that is not what life is about.  Your life has meaning today.  You are valuable now.  Your feelings shouldn’t fluctuate with the tag hidden inside your clothes.  I’m not sure why we have this fear of contentment, of satisfaction with our lives and ourselves.  I certainly don’t think that if you chose to be happy right now that you would cease to improve or challenge yourself or achieve great things.

Here’s a follow-up to my recent blog radio interview on one of my new hobbies–Foraging!  Interested in gathering some wild edibles?  Listen in for a taste of what you could be eating straight from nature!

[divider]

Transcript for Foraging: Fresh Food at Your Fingertips

Hi and welcome to Nutritionally Speaking.  I’m your host, Michaela Ballmann.  Today I’m going to do a follow-up to my recent radio interview with Rebecca Subbiah, one of my good friends on Twitter.  If you don’t follow her, why don’t you go on Twitter right now and follow @chowandchatter.  She’s a wonderful mom, dietitian, and social media guru.

I wanted to share a little bit more about my recent foraging adventures.  I am located in Southern California, so the wild food in your area might differ slightly or significantly from what we have here.

I’ve recently been getting more interested and active in gardening and foraging.  Going to farmers’ markets does help me get in touch with local farmers and food, but I want to grow my own food.  More than that, I want to know what foods that grow in the wild are safe, edible, and nutritious.  It is very fulfilling to see how food goes from a seed to the thing I put in my mouth, and to realize the bounty of food that is all around us.

I want to start by recommending that newbies to foraging either get a good book and/or take a class on wild foods to become familiar with the poisonous varieties, especially the look-a-likes of common edible plants.  Even though I’m sure you would much rather spend your time and energy getting familiar with all the “safe” plants, it is equally, if not more, important to familiarize yourself with the plants that could do you harm.

Enough with the disclaimer!  Let’s get to the good stuff!  If you’re listening to this on iTunes, you can always check out this post on my website to see pictures of the foods I am describing.

The first food I’d like to talk to you about is one that I actually didn’t get to forage since its season was past, but our instructor had made a salsa out of it.  It’s called Purslane. Purslane is usually found during the summer and the leaves and thinner stems can be used pretty much any way you can imagine.  What’s really neat is that Purslane is a good source of omega-3’s, especially for vegetarians.  In fact, 100 Grams of fresh purslane leaves (about 1 cup) contain 300 to 400 mg of alpha linolenic acid (ALA).

 

 

Wood Sorrel is a beautiful little plant that has three sets of heart-shaped leaves with black dots on top and yellow flowers.  You can eat the plant raw in a salad or in cooked dishes like stews or even steeped in a tea.  Being from the genus Oxalis, it contains oxalic acid (like spinach and broccoli) and has an acidic, sour taste that is actually quite good.  It is often recommended to moderate your intake of this food, and eat it in its whole form so that you do not get toxic levels of oxalic acid.  I’m not sure how much you would have to eat to cause damage to your kidneys, but as a precaution, I probably wouldn’t juice this plant or cook it down and eat it in excess.  On a positive note, Wood Sorrel is high in Vitamin C as well as some B vitamins.

 

Mugwort is a very interesting plant that has had a variety of uses within the Native American culture.  It looks a bit like a claw with its 5-6 pointy sides, and the underside is a distinctive white compared to the deep green of its topside.  It’s been said that the Romans used it to help them with foot pain, and it’s been used by many to transport fire, since it continues to burn and smoke.  The Chinese also use it in moxibustion, which involves burning the dried mugwort at acupuncture points th...