I know that many people and businesses in the area are registered in the Mission Hospital’s program Lighten Up 4 Life, like Ashevegas/Jason and i.
It’s the first time i’ve dieted in my life and have found 2 wonderful web resources for keeping track and keeping ON track. The first will keep track of all your data. You put in what you’ve eaten and it adds up the total calories, fat, carbs, etc and the second is a comprehensive website for finding almost any food we consume and its nutrition label.
i’ve battled with weight all my life and am just now figuring it out ... if you do stuff now that you can’t sustain permanently, you’re going to end up heavier, that much i know ... it’s a chemical thing reminiscent of our cave days ...
lately, i have had lasting (slow but seemingly permanent) success with eliminating MSG and other food additives. eating organically and cooking myself (avoiding processed, prepared and restaurant foods, all laden with MSG) have been the key (although i’m not even half-way there yet, i managed to lose weight during the holidays with no intentional effort to do so) ... you don’t eliminate any certain foods, you just have to be mindful of how they were prepared ...
think about this: in order for scientists to create fat rats for obesity-related experiments, they INJECT pure MSG into them. this cross-wires their systems and they get fat ... now, start reading labels of the stuff you buy and you’ll see that nearly EVERYTHING we eat has MSG in it. it goes by many different names, and you can get the list and the low-down from msgtruth.org ... it’s also associated with other modern maladies like ADD, diabetes, etc. read the article on the incidence of obesity in japan ... alarming!
it’s true that western culture is getting fatter and sicker due to our diets, but it’s not the fat or sugar that’s doing it ... it’s the chemicals, with MSG at the top of the list ... we’ve allowed the food industry to “industrialize” our diets for their profit and convenience and the food advertisers will not let this story out into the mainstream media ... and those “healthy choice” and “lean cuisine” type foods are offenders too ... keeping a log of everything is helpful to educate yourself initially but often, folks lose interest in the log and then lose momentum toward the goal ...
with this approach, i have managed a significant long-term loss for the first time ... and not suffered any side effects from the efforts ... lots more to go, but i am very patient, as my health is more important than aesthetics and i’m “at one with my chub” (round and soft is niiiice!) ... but i feel GREAT and i’m bouncing off the walls with energy ...
And obesity among young people in China is growing at 10% each decade. According to the following BBC article, just in the years from 1985-2000, obesity in China’s children increased 28 fold. (italics ours). Like American foods, most processed foods targeted to Chinese consumers have large quantities of MSG added.
Unfortunately, the Chinese, like Americans, consume large amounts of MSG and do not consume as many other foods that may counteract it, as the Japanese do (taurine-containing raw fish, for example).
you can go directly to the piece on weight/obesity here:
As to MSG, this may seem to go without saying, but it may be worth mentioning. MSG is a familiar term to most people I think. Over the last, I don’t know, maybe 20 years or so, the harmful effects of MSG have been well publicized. So no packaged food manufacturer is going to intentionally say “MSG added” on the front of the packaging. Indeed though, they may proudly show “No MSG” on the front of the package. Which brings me to my point. My wife recently bought some kind of new “healthy” snack, I don’t remember what it was, but before trying it, I took a quick look at the listed ingredients. Included in small print was “monosodium glutamate.” Is that a term recognizable by most people? I really don’t think so. So anyone who is trying to be careful of what added chemicals in foods they are consuming might best be familiar with what to look for.
The main reason I was looking at the ingredients was not for any possible MSG (I had sort of assumed that MSG was pretty much gone from all products nowadays - big mistake), it was to be sure it did not have the one chemical l personally cannot consume in any quantity whatsoever without very acute intestinal problems, and that is maltitol. Almost anything that claims “low sugar,” “no sugar,” or “low fat” may contain maltitol. I found this out the hard way once by eating a large bowl of Healthy Choice ice cream. It almost put me in the hospital. My doctor the next day explained how maltitol is essentially a laxative. Yet it is in many so called “healthy” packaged foods nowadays.
here is a page with all the various names that MSG travels under ("yeast extract” ... ?!?) ... it’s worth printing out and carrying to the grocery store with you ...
eating foods with MSG is eating foods with an appetite stimulant! the now-commonly known “insulin resistance” syndrome that causes weight gain can be linked to MSG (even in the absence of carbs), which stimulates insulin production.
Wow! Thanks Lumina and Kriss about the monosodium glutamate and Maltitol! Just starting this whole business of controlling what i eat left me thinking that watching the cals, carbs etc would do it.... so it’s back to the labels!
interesting that i just read this information this afternoon. i knew there seemed to be a difference in the chemistry of weight gain/loss for those who had lifelong issues vs. adult onset, but this certainly explains it in logical terms. i thought folks might be interested ... (zen, this should come as great news to you since your weight issues seem pretty recent and relatively minor):
its by dr. david katz in a health column in O magazine:
Q: Is it true that I’m struck with the fat cells I have? Or is there some way I can lose them?
A: No, you’re not stuck: You can shed fat cells, but you won’t find it to be a stroll in the park. When we gain weight as adults, we are mostly enlarging the fat cells we have instead of adding more. This process has a medical name: hypertropic obesity.
Reversing this type of weight gain requires shrinking the cells, but they don’t put up a huge fight when being shrunk from plus size back to normal. While not exactly easy, this type of weight loss is more doable than reversing the other kind of obesity: hyperplastic.
When we quickly put on a lot of pounds in early childhood, at puberty and sometimes even as adults, we can grow new fat cells. Known as hyperplastic obesity, it poses a daunting challenge. The only way to be thin if you have an excessive population of fat cells is to shrink them below normal size, which is where things get really tough. The cells begin to produce less leptin, a hormone that signals the brain when you’re full. You’ll end up feeling ravenous all the time. If you find the will to lose more than 10 percent of your body weight (more than 20 pounds for someone who weighs 200), eventually you’ll induce a process called apoptosis--cell death. You could begin trimming your population of fat cells. Once you do, you’ll find that maintaining a lower weight gets easier.
(zen, this should come as great news to you since your weight issues seem pretty recent and relatively minor)
The truth is that MSG in quantity has always given me headaches and so i’ve avoided it wherever possible. Generally why i prefer Japanese food to Chinese. And yes, the weight issues are recent, so i’m lucky in that way.
I think the best rule of thumb is to always go for whole, organic foods and stay away from anything that is processed. It costs a little more in time, energy and finances - but it more than pays for itself in the long term with better health - and that in the end is worth more than anything.
If you are trying to lose weight, alcohol must go (’cept for the occasional glass of red wine). There are endless resources on the web to explain why. Champaigne apparently has the least calories and carbs.
I tried to do a liquid diet after the new year, but I just found myself obsessing about food...then when I allowed myself some solid food, I went bonkers. Like Lumina says, best not to deprive yourself, but become more conscious of the way food is prepared. The simpler, the better, from what I can gather.
Status: So far by quitting sodas and coffee (i can’t stand it without the refined sugar), drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day and being aware of my portions and using the SparkPeople page to be aware of high calorie and fatty foods, i have lost 12 pounds in the first month of the challenge (i still have 20 some odd lbs to go).
The sodas and sugared items had the biggest effect and almost immediately.
And sorry for not answering Trey, but yes they did have recommended workouts and email reminders, i just haven’t started the exercise portion of the challenge (yet). They recommended for me a 1500-1850 calorie intake and have various ways to remind me to eat more veggies and fruits.
ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS LINKED TO WEIGHT GAIN Cutting the connection between sweets and calories may confuse the body, making it harder to regulate intake
Washington — Want to lose weight? It might help to pour that diet soda down the drain. Researchers have laboratory evidence that the widespread use of no-calorie sweeteners may actually make it harder for people to control their intake and body weight. The findings appear in the February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
Psychologists at Purdue University’s Ingestive Behavior Research Center reported that relative to rats that ate yogurt sweetened with glucose (a simple sugar with 15 calories/teaspoon, the same as table sugar), rats given yogurt sweetened with zero-calorie saccharin later consumed more calories, gained more weight, put on more body fat, and didn’t make up for it by cutting back later, all at levels of statistical significance.
Authors Susan Swithers, PhD, and Terry Davidson, PhD, surmised that by breaking the connection between a sweet sensation and high-calorie food, the use of saccharin changes the body’s ability to regulate intake. That change depends on experience. Problems with self-regulation might explain in part why obesity has risen in parallel with the use of artificial sweeteners. It also might explain why, says Swithers, scientific consensus on human use of artificial sweeteners is inconclusive, with various studies finding evidence of weight loss, weight gain or little effect. Because people may have different experiences with artificial and natural sweeteners, human studies that don’t take into account prior consumption may produce a variety of outcomes.
some good rules to follow to get lighter and healthier:
cut wheat totally...all products containing gluton (pasta, breads, so forth)
cut dairy down to a minimum
eat brown rice, not white
eat steamed vegetables
eat lean protein
cut caffeine, smoking, and alchohol
exercise more than you usually do
drink more water
Eat organic vegetarian foods in moderation. 5 small meals a day is perfect. Under eat. NEVER eat at fast food places. Walk for 15-30 minutes every day. Then stick with it.
