Miracle foods: which ones work?

Every day we see headlines that promise miracles if we eat a particular food. In the last week we read articles on WebMD that suggest "Blueberry juice may boost memory" and that "Green tea extract may treat uterine fibroids." Sometimes they claim to melt away the fat or otherwise help us lose weight effortlessly.

Are these foods miracles? No. The headlines usually cover themselves by using weasel words such as may, might and could. Some of these foods are interesting. They deserve further study. Perhaps one day an active ingredient will be isolated that will be proven to help disease or improve health.

Are these foods bad? No, not at all. The diversity in nutrients provided by different foods is truly amazing. When scientists analyze plants they often find new compounds and new molecules.

A food might appear to be a miracle if it provides a nutrient that is missing from the diet. British sailors of a few hundred years ago often got very sick during long voyages. When they reached shore they learned that limes would cure them. They had developed scurvy, a disease caused by lack of vitamin C, and the vitamin C in the limes cured them. That must have seemed a miracle!

Consider that we don't know everything about all foods. We don't know everything about the human body and how various natural nutrients affect it. Doesn't it make sense to eat a large variety of food?

At Diet Inn we are firm believers in variety. Too much of any one thing is often bad. A lack of an essential nutrient is bad. So we recommend eating a large variety of food, and as fresh and little processed as possible.

bon appetit!
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Do you want to lose weight?

The Diet Inn admin added a polling feature for me (thanks admin!) I want to learn more about our audience as we gain readers. Anyone, even anonymous web surfers, can respond to the polls.

Please visit Diet Inn and let me know if you want to lose weight. I'm trying to break the ice with an easy question. :) The poll is at the left side of the page. Please comment here (or register, log in and comment there) if you want me to ask a different question.

bon appetit!
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Diets: The Low Fat Diet

Summary: Eat less fat. Exercise more. Since you already have more than enough fat eating less will help right?

Pros: Reducing the amount of harmful fat in your diet will improve your heart health.

Cons: Inadvertently reducing good fat can harm your heart health. Substituting refined carbohydrates for good fat can backfire and cause you to gain weight.

Saturated fats are strongly linked to various heart and artery problems. The evidence that trans fats are harmful is so strong they should be completely eliminated from your diet.

Saturated fats are found in animal products, with red meat and dairy products containing the most. Trans fat is a man made fat.

Reducing saturated fat and eliminating trans fat is a healthy move to make. Many people, maybe even most Americans, eat too much and will benefit from eating fewer saturated fats.

Several studies have been done to understand why people living in the Mediterranean region have long, healthy lives. It turns out fat, in the form of monounsaturated fat like that found in olive oil, improves heart health.

Studies of other cultures where lots of fish are eaten show that polyunsaturated fats increase levels of the good cholesterol (HDL) while lowering triglycerides and bad cholesterol (LDL). Fish contain omega fats while vegetable oils contain polyunsaturated fats.

How did it happen that so many people believe low fat diets are good for your heart?

bon appetit!
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Is your Diet sustainable?

Recently several people we met have tried a miracle diet. This involves getting daily injections of a hormone and going on a starvation diet of 500 calories daily.

Supposedly the hormone relieves hunger pangs and causes the body to metabolize its fat rather than muscle. Some of these "miracle diets" use HCG which is a hormone produced during pregnancy. Others use HGH, human growth hormone.

Even if the diet works exactly as advertised you have to ask yourself is it sustainable? Can you continue to inject hormones and eat 500 calories daily for the rest of your life?

Of course not. Once you lose the desired amount of weight you need to eat enough food to stabilize your weight. It is unhealthy to lose too much weight. Is it healthy to get injected with hormones the daily the rest of your life? We doubt that.

So what will you do when the diet is over? Maybe you have lost a lot of weight. You have not learned how to eat a healthy diet so you will go back to your old ways and will gain back everything you lost. It will happen, it has to happen.

The only way to permanently lose weight is to make sustainable changes to your diet. Changes you can make forever...

A word on 500 calorie/day diets.

If your Basel Metabolic Rate is 2250 cal/day and you only eat 500 you will lose 1/2 a pound every day. This will happen without hormones.

500 calories per day is not much food. Given that limit it is hard to eat a balanced diet with healthy amounts of good fats, carbohydrates, essential proteins, vitamins and minerals. Don't starve your body of essential nutrients! If you insist on starving yourself please talk with a doctor, he may talk you out of it or prescribe supplements.

bon appetit!
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Diet Inn and the Slow Food Movement

We are asked if we support the Slow Food Movement. To answer that question we need to know what the Slow Food Movement is. We heard that Alice Waters, founder of one of the finest restaurants in the world Chez Panisse, supports the SFM (Slow Food Movement.)

On reading the introduction to her The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution, a great cookbook for beginners, we learn she believes the best tasting food is grown close to home by organic farmers. She calls it her Delicious Revolution.

Jeff Crump and Bettina Shormann do use the words SFM in the introduction to their magnificent cookbook Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm. They agree working with local producers is key. "It's about quality food but that's not the same thing as expensive food." They summarize the SFM by saying "Slow Food is the way to defend the world against everything that's wrong with they way we tend to eat."

Wikipedia says the SFM was founded in Italy to combat fast food. Most other references are along the same vein. Local, organic food is good. Fast food is bad.

We at Diet Inn are not dogmatic. We love local, organic, delicious food. We support local farmers and the local economy in general. We have also been known to eat a grilled chicken sandwich with a side salad and water purchased at a local fast food joint. We are not farmers or restaurant owners; we support people's efforts to lose weight. So we came up with our own definition of SFM which we wholeheartedly support.

Diet Inn suggests taking your time when eating. Chew each bite completely. Savor the full flavor available. Eat slowly.

bon appetit!
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Diets: Counting Calories

Summary: Calculate your BMR. Add up the calories in all the food you eat. Make sure you eat fewer calories than your BMR.

Pros: Eat fewer calories than your BMR and you WILL lose weight. You become aware of which foods have the most calories and what exactly is a reasonable portion.

Cons: Counting can be tedious for some people. Calories are calories, counting doesn't distinguish between healthy and unhealthy foods.

The only way to lose weight is to create a Calorie Deficit. Every diet is designed to create a calorie deficit. Calorie counters keep track of everything they eat adding up all the calories. Keep the daily total to 500 calories less than your BMR (Basel Metabolism Rate) and you will lose 1/lb each week.

To start your calorie counting diet calculate your BMR (Calorie Deficit) then start counting calories. The following book, Calorie King, is very easy to follow and a must have for every calorie counter:

Keep Calorie King near the dining room table as a handy reference. Calories, fiber, calcium, fat and carbohydrate content are provided for a comprehensive list of foods. Many fast food and casual food items are included along with almost everything you can buy at the market.

bon appetit!
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Recession's Silver Lining - Spending Less and Doing More

We read an article ("In Recession, Americans Doing More, Buying Less" by Damien Cave) in today's (1/3/2010) New York Times. They quote several polls and produce other evidence to support their headline. This is great news!

Whether to pay off debt, rebuild savings or to cope with reduced income Americans are buying fewer material things. The silver lining is they continue to pursue experiences such as visiting museums and outdoors activities.

The good news for the health of Americans is many are spending more time gardening and cooking. It is very healthy to grow and cook your own food. Nothing tastes better than a gourmet variety fruit or vegetable picked ripe then eaten that very same day.

Gardening is great exercise. It is good to get some sun and fresh air. It is good to see the connection between the earth, plants and the food you eat. It can also save you money. It is possible to grow food very economically and the time you spend gardening is time you are not at the mall.

Cooking a meal for your family or friends is healthy and rewarding. You won't add nearly as much salt or sugar as many restaurants do. You will likely serve more reasonable portions. Additionally the time spent with friends or family is nourishing for the soul. Cooking at home is also less expensive than visiting restaurants.
Join the crowd and start planning for this season's crops. This is the time of year when the seed catalogs arrive. If you don't already get them in the mail just ask, or order seeds/plants online.

bon appetit!
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