The WannaBuddy Blog

Dr. Oz’s Dopamine Diet

2013-05-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

Losing weight is easy right? You just eat less, maybe exercise more, and the weight falls off. Oh yeah, that isn't reality. Food cravings crop up the instant you start to cut back. Before you know it, you are eating a slice of cake over the sink and telling yourself that you can start another diet TOMORROW! Dr. Oz has a new idea: dopamine can deal with those powerful cravings, making dieting easier and more effective.

Dopamine is a chemical that naturally occurs in your brain. It plays a key role in moderating your emotions and your feeling of well-being. It is a partner chemical to serotonin, which is also linked to your mood and metabolism.

Dopamine is manufactured by your body, built up from a component in food called tyrosine. Tyrosine is found in fowl (chicken, duck) some cheeses (ricotta is a favorite), edamame, dark chocolate (yay!), wheat germ and seaweed. Oh, yes, and in fava beans, famous for their role in “Silence of the Lambs.”

Normally, you get enough tyrosine from your diet to manufacture ample amounts of dopamine. That is, until you start a diet. Then you might unintentionally cut out the very foods that let your body make dopamine. Then the food cravings start and your metabolism slows down.

What can you do? You can choose a diet that features tyrosine-rich foods. You don’t need to eat a lot, but don’t cut them out entirely. Otherwise, you can take a supplement to fill in the gap. Look for L-Tyrosine pills or powder. It turns out that tyrosine comes in “L” and “R” varieties. Start up a stimulating conversation with a chemist sometime on that subject. Anyway, most nutrition-focused stores will carry the L-Tyrosine pills that you’re after.

Could this work for you? It certainly can’t hurt including tyrosine-rich foods in your diet. Be very cautious about the L-Tyrosine pills, though, if you have high blood pressure or heart issues. It can interact with related medications. Check with your doctor first.

Great Exercise Without A Gym

2013-05-16T00:00:00.000-07:00

We have written previously about the benefits of high intensity interval training (HIIT). Most people naturally assume that this type of conditioning requires a gym membership, or at least a significant investment in home equipment. A recent report shows how an expert would perform HIIT at home without anything more complicated than a sturdy chair.

Brett Klika and Chris Jordan work at the Human Performance Institute in Orlando, Florida. They published an article in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health and Fitness Journal, describing how anyone can get a great workout without spending a lot on facilities or equipment.

HIIT is a great way to get a lot of cardiovascular training packed into a short time period. For most of us, time is our most precious commodity, so HIIT is pretty attractive. In less than an hour, you can get a thorough work out and get back to your life. Boom! That’s a great way to get and stay in shape.

Klika and Jordan suggest that a great workout can be made up of merely twelve exercises. Each exercise lasts for about 30 seconds, with 10 seconds allotted for transition to the next repetition or the next exercise. That means that a complete circuit of the twelve exercises takes less than 10 minutes. They suggest doing three rotations in total, but you can adjust that to your own fitness level.

The various exercises target some or all of your body. For example, exercise number 1 , jumping jacks, is a total body workout. It’s also a great starter, getting your body warmed up, your lungs engaged and your blood pumping.

Exercise number 2 targets your lower body. It is called the wall sit because you assume a sitting position, but there is no chair under you. Instead, you are bracing your back against the wall. This sounds simple, but a few seconds in this pose will show you that it’s not!

Exercise 3 shifts to the upper body. This is your old-school push-up. Keep your back straight and don’t cheat yourself; go all the way down and all the way back up. We will know if you cut corners.

Exercise 4 hits your core hard: crunches. These dastardly half sit-ups will make you cry uncle quickly, but get that six-pack installed in short order.

Exercise 5 (total body again) is the first exercise to require equipment. You need a sturdy and stable chair that you don’t mind standing on. You use the seat of the chair as a step-up platform. Alternate legs and try to keep stepping for 30 seconds.

Number 6 (lower body) is a favorite: the squat. Stand with your feet shoulder distance apart, then bend your knees until your thighs are parallel with the ground. If you want to look cool, extend your arms in front of you. This also keeps you from falling over as fatigue sets in.

Exercise 7 (upper body) gets the chair involved again. It is called a triceps dip. Stand facing away from the chair, with your hands on either side of the seat and your legs straight. Keep your body straight, so you are dividing your weight between your feet and your arms. Now bend your arms, lowering yourself to the edge of the seat, and then straighten again. Sounds easy, but just wait until you try it.

Exercise 8 (core) is the plank. Just lay on the floor, body straight, with your torso resting on your forearms. That should put your body a foot or so off the floor. Now hold that pose for 30 seconds. Yes, a mere half minute.

Exercise 9 (total body) is running in place, but with a high leg raise for every stride. This will really get your cardio moving.

Exercise 10 (lower body) is the lunge. Stand with your feet together, then take a step forward with one foot while keeping your other foot fixed. Go forward enough that your back leg nearly touches the ground. Repeat with the other leg. Again. Again.

Exercise 11 (upper body) is a bit flashy, but you can do this with a little practice. You start out in a standard push-up position. Lower yourself as normal but when you push up, rotate your body so that one arm goes straight up. This will take quite a good push-off. Best of luck.

The final exercise (core) is side plank. As the name suggests, this is done by laying on the floor, on your side. Support your body with your foot and your forearm, keeping your body straight for 30 seconds. Repeat on the other side. My, my, can you feel the burn?

So after less than 10 minutes you have used and abused nearly every major muscle group, plus your cardiovascular system is completely angry with you. And all you needed was a chair. If you have 20-30 minutes, you can have a great workout!

The 3-Day Weekend Juice Cleanse

2013-05-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. Oz never seems to run out of diets. He seems to be particularly fond of quick-fix diets, especially cleanses. So it is not surprising to see that he is promoting a new diet, called the Joe Cross 3-Day Weekend Juice Cleanse. Are you ready for the juice?

The diet is from Joe Cross, who describes himself as a health advocate and documentary filmmaker. During the production of one of his documentaries he decided that his weight was causing too many problems in his life. He set out to lose weight and become healthy. This juice cleanse is the result of his journey.

The 3-Day Juice Cleanse is, you guessed it, based around drinking a lot of juice. It is best to have your own juicer, since you are going to be drinking a broad variety of juices, some of which are difficult to find in the grocery store.

The 3-Day Juice Cleanse takes 5 days. Yes, that’s right, 5 days at least. For 2 days, you are in the “ramp up” stage. During this stage you are preparing for the cleanse and flushing your body with fluids. That entails lots of hot water with lemon and ginger and the total elimination of caffeine, sugar, dairy, beef and processed foods.

During the actual 3 days of the cleanse your diet is quite prescriptive. You have 5 juices a day and only one real meal. Before you get too excited about that meal, it is strictly fruits and vegetables.

Your juices are quite varied. There is a carrot, apple and ginger juice. Another juice blend is called “Mean Green” because it contains cucumber, celery, kale, apples, ginger and lemons. Gazpacho juice is your lunch, with a “Sunset Blend” juice before dinner. This is sweet potato, carrot, red pepper, beets, apples and oranges blended together. After a day of these juices, dinner veggies and fruit will be a welcome change. At least you get something to chew!

After the 3-day cleanse is complete, you ramp back to eating 3 meals a day. Joe Cross recommends keeping at least one juice in your daily diet, though. Don’t want to let the juicer go to waste!

Have you taken the 3-Day Juice Cleanse challenge? How did it go?

Work Out, Avoid Breast Cancer

2013-05-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

It is intuitively obvious that sensible exercise is good for us. If nothing else, it makes that afternoon snack easier to rationalize. New research has just been published that shows that a moderate exercise regimen can dramatically reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota were interested in the relationship between exercise and the metabolism of estrogen. Estrogen is a hormone that, in addition to other benefits, seems to play a role in reducing breast cancer risk. The study involved nearly 400 sedentary (but healthy) women, divided into two groups. Once group continued their inactive lifestyle while the other group committed to at least a half hour of moderate exercise at least five times a week.

After four months, the two groups of women were examined. As one might expect, the group who adopted a regular exercise routine had better cardiovascular capacity and improved BMI. What stood out, though, was that they also had a 25% increase in levels of some metabolites of estrogen that were linked with reduced breast cancer risk.

So it appears that moderate exercise causes a woman’s body to break down estrogen into beneficial metabolites which help fight off cancer.

This result supported an earlier study which examined the health of 3,000 women over age 20, with some as old as 98. About half of the women had breast cancer and half did not. When they evaluated their exercise habits they noticed some trends.

Women in all age groups showed a beneficial relationship between exercise and avoiding breast cancer (about 6%). The largest benefit was experienced by women with children who exercised 10-20 hours a week. They showed a 30% lower incidence of breast cancer.

The benefits measured in both studies did not require gym memberships or personal trainers. The only requirement was a disciplined approach to actually being active on a consistent basis. Just walking at a moderate pace was enough.

So, gals, grab a walking buddy and get walking! It could make a major difference in your long-term health!

The Fat Flush Diet

2013-05-06T00:00:00.000-07:00

Ann Louise Gittleman calls herself the “First Lady of Nutrition” when she appears on such TV shows as Dr. Phil, The View, or Good Morning America. Her Fat Flush Diet claims to speed weight loss while it eliminates mysterious toxins from your liver and lymph nodes. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Here’s what you should know.

The Fat Flush Diet is broken down into three phases, you can think of them as Prepare, Lose, and Maintain. While you are following the diet, you are also expended to exercise about a half hour a day. This doesn't have to be a brutal HIIT program; walking or casual weight lifting is fine.

Phase one lasts for a week or two. This is the most challenging phase, because your diet is limited to 1,100 to 1,200 calories. This is right on the edge of the FDA’s recommended minimum caloric intake for a healthy diet. You also give up a lot of foods, like sugar, fats and oils, grains, cereals, dairy, starchy vegetables, even margarine. Your goal during this phase is to lose bloat, so expect to see some water weight drop off. That happens while you drink a lot of cranberry juice mixed with water and lemon juice in water. A pretty typical cleanse routine.

Phase two, the “lose weight” phase, boosts your daily caloric intake to 1,200 to 1,500 calories. You add back in some foods, too, like brown rice, carrots, squash, peas and sweet potatoes. You stay in phase two until you reach your goal weight, no matter how long that takes. Your exercise regimen continues.

Phase three is your “diet for life” or maintenance phase. This defines your future eating plan. You are allowed 1,500 calories a day (the FDA would be proud) that comes from 40% carbs, 30% proteins and 30% fats. Gittleman warns against eating gluten, so your pastas and breads will be gluten-free hereafter. Your exercise program should gradually increase as your body becomes stronger.

Is the Fat Flush Diet right for you? Most doctors question the validity of “flushing toxins” associated with any diet. The balance of the diet, though, is sensible and not too restrictive. There’s a nice balance between eating sensibly and exercising moderately. This could be something that you stick with.

Have your tried the Fat Flush Diet? Let us know your experiences!

The Gwyneth Paltrow Diet

2013-05-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Gwyneth Paltrow is no stranger to controversy. She spends a huge amount of her public time talking about healthy living, while puffing away at a cigarette. She warns about avoiding eating disorders while appearing in bikinis that flaunt more ribs than curves. Now she has published a book, “It’s all Good” that discusses her special approach to dieting. And yes, her children follow this diet as well.

Gwyneth credits her diet journey on a stroke that was later diagnosed as a panic attack. Following this event, she eliminated dairy, eggs, sugar, coffee, corn, wheat, soy, meat and fish from her diet. This “elimination diet” does permit nuts (she loves almond butter), rice and lentils. Oh, and wine.

She is convinced that gluten is a poison for many of us. This has been great for
people who are truly gluten-intolerant or suffer from celiac disease. Because of Paltrow’s fame, eating gluten-free has something of a celebrity halo. Hope that it lasts.

The Gwyneth Paltrow diet features a lot of fruit juice. She regularly conducts a juice cleanse to rid her body of toxins. Given her limited diet, where do these toxins come from?

Is it possible to be healthy on such a limited diet? Only people truly obsessed with reading ingredient labels can hope to create a balanced diet within Gwyneth’s guidelines. You probably don’t have a personal chef, nor access to exotic foodstuffs, either.

So can the Gwyneth Paltrow Diet make you look like Gwyneth? Nope, not a chance. Could it provide a (temporary) diversion from your non-movie star life? Sure, why not?

The AARP New American Diet

2013-04-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

The AARP is normally associated with seniors’ discounts at restaurants and theaters, and not so much for

trendy diets. With the release of the New American Diet, all that has changed. This diet claims that you can lose 10 pounds in two weeks. And no, you don’t have to retire first.

The AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps people 50 and older improve the quality of their lives. That’s directly from the AARP. Years ago, AARP actually stood for the American Association for Retired People, but that was before retirement ran off into the distance and we resigned ourselves to a future that didn't include retirement.

The AARP Diet (or New American Diet, although the diet isn't really aimed at NEW Americans so much) was written by Dr. John Whyte, Chief Medical Expert for the Discovery Channel. The diet shares a lot with the Mediterranean Diet, which has enjoyed praise from many over the years.

The AARP New American Diet is based on twelve precepts for success. Some tips are obvious and easy, others less so. My favorite is the first: get enough sleep. This is based on research that found that people who regularly slept less than six hours a night were 25% more likely to become obese. Getting enough sleep means that you have enough energy throughout your day to burn off those calories that lurk in every bite.

Success factor number two: eat breakfast. Don’t skip this important meal. This gets your metabolism running, fuels your morning, and provides enough energy that you won’t gorge yourself come lunchtime.

Success tip three is a bit counter-intuitive eat more often. Modern life is structured around three (or maybe two) meals a day. If you spread you calorie intake over more, smaller meals you tend to eat less overall. You also avoid hunger pangs and approach each small meal without feeling famished.

Factor four makes sense: take it slow. That is, eat more slowly. This gives your body plenty of time to react to those calories you’re swallowing. You feel full before you over eat. Drink a glass of water before the meal and at least one more during your meal. These tactics alone can cut your calorie intake significantly.

Tip number five is a personal favorite: drink coffee. This is not to be confused with the trendy Green Coffee Bean Extract Diet. This is simply drinking black coffee. Drinking two cups of coffee a day will boost your metabolism, letting you burn calories faster.

Success factor six is easy: just chew some gum. Choose sugar-free gum, of course, but the chewing will keep your digestive system perking along and help you feel full at the same time. Just remember to bring enough for everyone.

Tip number seven fits in with tip number three: snack at work. Bring something light and nutrition for those mid-morning and mid-afternoon slumps. This keeps your insulin and blood sugar levels even and avoids those cravings that can be the death of many diet plans.

Success factor eight is quite popular: eat dark chocolate! Yes, dark chocolate contains a lot of healthy bits, including a great cough suppression side-effect, but it also provides antioxidants and flavanols. Just eat a quarter ounce a day, not the entire bar!

Tip number nine makes a lot of sense: walk more. Walking has so many positive health effects that it just makes sense to strive for 10,000 steps a day. Get a walking buddy or at least a pedometer and challenge yourself to reach that 10,000 mark every day. A half hour walk three days a week can do wonders for your health and happiness.

Success factor ten ties back to number four: drink water. Water is a key part of our metabolic cycle, and diet sodas just don’t compare. Keep a BPA-free water bottle with you all day. Your body will thank you.

Success tip number eleven is a bit surprising: eat at a table. It turns out that eating at a table will cause you to eat less without you even thinking about it. For extra benefits, find smaller plates. That will subconsciously guide you to smaller servings, ergo fewer calories.

Success factor twelve can be hard: weight yourself. Nobody likes to get negative feedback, so we can come up with some really creative reasons to avoid that nasty scale. But without some progress tracking, our diet can drift away like a bad dream. Don’t weigh yourself every day, though, because your weight will fluctuate a bit and this minor weight loss then gain cycle can be a demotivating factor. Weigh yourself at the same time of day every week to eliminate as many random variables as possible. Celebrate the pounds lost and blame the minor setbacks on scale malfunctions!

Following these twelve tips for success, plus the other ideas and recipes in the New American Diet book, can get you back on a healthy and long-lived path. Maybe you can't retire this year, but you can certainly take a vacation from that belly bulge!

The Omni Diet

2013-04-25T00:00:00.001-07:00

By eating the right foods you can eliminate chronic disease, boost your immune system, regulate your hormones and control your blood sugar. This will reduce your chance of diabetes, cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s. And as a side effect, you will also lose weight. So says Tana Amen, author of the book, “The Omni Diet.”

Tana Amen is married to Dr. Daniel Amen, who wrote “TheAmen Solution” describing a diet approach that matches your emotional makeup to the proper diet. Tana believes that healthy eating is simpler than that. One diet (hers) is right for everyone. She promises that the Omni Diet will change our lives forever.

The subtitle of her book lays out her approach: 70% plant-based and 30% protein on the plate. That eliminates dairy, simple sugars, processed foods and most grains. The book details three 14-day phases and a life-long maintenance phase that purports to extend your lifespan. Happily, Amen supplies plenty of recipes and menu plans.

Much of Tana Amen’s approach is to replace (or substantially reduce) the use of pharmaceuticals. She believes that modern life is too focused on taking a pill for everything, and that those nasty side-effects that come at the end of every medication advertisement are real, and far more common that we think.

Amen describes her Omni Diet as “eating like a gorilla” because of the focus on veggies and vegetable juices. Meat is allowed, although Amen recommends seeking out strictly grass-fed meats. That takes a bit more time and money to procure, but she says that it’s worth it.

Could the Omni Diet work for you? The meal plan is healthy (albeit sparse) so there isn’t any fundamental danger involved, unlike many fad diets. Certainly, consult with your doctor before you stop taking any prescription medications, though.

Have you already started the Omni Diet? Let us know how it is working out!

The Fast Metabolism Diet

2013-04-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Want to lose 20 pounds in four weeks? That sounds pretty good. Oh, and you don’t have to starve yourself! That sounds great! Haylie Pomroy has a new way to jump-start your metabolism to burn fat, lose weight and feel wonderful. It’s call the Fast Metabolism Diet.

Haylie Pomroy has been nutritionist to the stars for years. She even calls herself the metabolism whisperer. Now she’s ready to reach a broader audience, and she has a book and a Dr. Oz appearance to make that happen.

Her book, “The Fast Metabolism Diet” describes an eating plan the keeps your metabolism off balance, constantly adjusting to the addition of new food groups and coping with the loss of others.

The Fast Metabolism Diet has three phases, which are repeated every week. Pomroy says that this rotation keeps your metabolism guessing, preventing weight loss plateaus. Every day has three meals and two snacks, so you don’t feel like you’re starving yourself skinny.

Phase I is all about carbs and fruit. This fills Monday and Tuesday with grains and fresh fruits. For these two days, proteins are in the minority but there are lots of pastas and breads. This is designed to unwind the stress of daily life, especially from your weekend.

Phase II shifts gears and focuses on proteins and vegetables. Lean meat and fish, lots of salads, and very few carbs for Wednesday and Thursday. This phase unlocks the fat in your body by prodding your liver and gall bladder into releasing enzymes that destroy fat.

Phase III rounds out the week (Friday through Sunday) with a combination of Phase I and Phase II, plus healthy fats and oils. Now you add olive oil, avocados, and other “good” cholesterol-containing foods. This phase unleashes your metabolism to burn fat and calories efficiently while controlling your stress reactions and keeping you happy.

The Fast Metabolism Diet is four cycles of these three phases. The 28-day diet can be repeated as necessary, too. An unusual feature: if you want to lose more than 20 pounds, you are instructed to eat MORE at each meal, rather than less. Once you reach your goal weight, you can continue to follow the general eating guidelines for life.

Are you ready to confuse your metabolism into burning your belly bump away? Check out the Fast Metabolism Diet and let us know how it works for you!

The Patino Diet

2013-04-18T00:00:00.001-07:00

Dr. Frank Patino believes that modern life has conspired to create a “perfect storm” of health issues. This confluence of factors has led to an explosion of obesity and diabetes across the country. He believes that his diet is the answer to these issues.

Dr. Patino’s perfect storm is pretty straight-forward. He blames four factors for our “pandemic” of obesity and obesity-related diseases.

Factor one is what he calls chronic physical deprivation. That’s a fancy way of saying that most of us don’t exercise enough. Riding the couch is not the way to burn off calories, nor a way to maintain muscle mass and flexibility.

Factor two in his perfect storm is a reliance on fast food. He blames our fast-paced lifestyle for our frequent trips to those golden arches. The days of yesteryear were slower, with home cooking the norm. Modern life demands drive-through dining, and that leads us to eating foods that are not ideal for our bodies.

Factor three is related to factor two. Most of what we eat has a high glycemic index. This means that the food digests very quickly, triggering a torrent of insulin to be secreted. This leads to fat deposits and food cravings a few hours later.

The final factor in the perfect storm is what Dr. Patino calls habitual over-consumption Serving sizes have mushroomed over recent years. This single factor has led to significantly higher daily caloric increases, and resultant obesity.

The Patino Diet is yet another glycemic index diet. The focus is on maintaining steady levels of blood sugar and insulin. Dr. Patino recommends foods like lean meats, vegetables and legumes. He suggests minimizing consumption of foods like potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, processed sugar and any other highly-processed foods. His book, “The Age of Globesity” has meal plans and recipes to help you.

The Patina Diet does not force you to count calories. Instead, you focus on the glycemic index of the foods that you eat. By eating low glycemic index foods you lose weight, burn off fat and become healthy again. Like most glycemic index diets, you can maintain this eating lifestyle forever. You may not end up looking like Dr. Patino, who looks a lot like a WWE wrestler, but you will probably lose weight and feel better.

Stretch Before That Workout? Maybe Not!

2013-04-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows that you should stretch before physical exercise. It turns out that everyone might just be

wrong. New research seems to indicate that stretching can actually reduce your strength without providing any immunity from injury. Wait, what?

Stretching seems harmless. Holding a stress position that extends large muscle groups seems like an obvious way to prepare the muscles for rigorous use. And how often are muscle pulls or strains blamed on not stretching before working out?

Two recent research studies took on measuring the results of stretching before exercise. One study found that stretching reduced overall strength by 5.5% and the other study found strength decreased by 8.3%. These results were independent of people’s age, sex, or physical fitness. The only time stretching did not have negative effects was when the stretching period was less than 45 seconds.

What can be done? Static stretching seems to decrease power without delivering
any benefits. Dynamic stretching, however, seems to help. Dynamic stretching involves moving the body through the motions of the anticipated strenuous exercise, but without any weight or resistance. This helps stimulate blood flow and increases tissue temperature, delivering resistance to injury without decreasing muscle strength.

So maybe consider some light exercises before weight lifting, like squat thrusts or jumping jacks. Just leave those “stretch and hold” positions in the closet with your Nehru jackets.

The Overnight Diet

2013-04-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

Everyone would like to lose weight and get more sleep. Surprise! The Overnight Diet might be the answer to both those desires. The author promises that you will lose two pounds while you sleep and nine pounds every week after one week. Could this be the perfect diet?

Dr. Caroline Apovian is the director of nutrition and weight management at the Boston Medical Center. She is also an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine. She created the Overnight Diet, and published a book by the same name, based on her 25 years’ experience helping thousands of obese patients lose weight.

The Overnight Diet is simple. Every week, you eat a high protein diet for six days. On the seventh day, you drink only smoothies made from specific ingredients. That’s right; no solid food at all for one day each week. Every night you get at least eight hours of sleep.

Dr. Apovian believes that lack of sleep causes our bodies to secrete a “hunger hormone” that makes us overeat and store away excess food as fat. By ensuring sufficient sleep, your body doesn’t secrete this mysterious hormone and makes only enough insulin for the high protein diet.

This is not a difficult diet to follow. Dr. Apovian credits this ease of execution for the great long-term results. She says that about half of her patients who follow the Overnight Diet keep their lost weight off. This is about twice the success rate of typical diets.

As you might expect, there are some critics. Losing two pounds overnight draws a lot of skepticism. Two pounds of fat equals about six thousand calories. That’s a lot of calories to burn counting sheep. More likely? You are losing water weight, not fat.

Can you lose nine pounds a week on a high protein diet? Certainly, at least for a while. The Atkins and Paleo diets are two popular high protein diets that skip the weekly juice cleanse. Neither of those diets give you any motivation to get to bed early, though.

Have you tried the Overnight Diet? Click on the Comment button and give us your review!

The 5:2 Diet

2013-04-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

The latest rage to come to the U.S. from England is the 5:2 Diet. The book “The Fast Diet” promises great things: rapid weight loss, reduced insulin resistance and decreased Alzheimer’s. Plus, you eat whatever you want for most of every week. Wow, is this the greatest diet ever?

Dr. Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer wrote their book after producing a documentary for the BBC called “Eat, Fast and Live Longer.” Like other intermittent fasting approaches, the 5:2 Diet proposes “eat what you want” for five days out of every week. The catch? For two days each week you only eat a quarter of your normal diet. For men that’s about 600 calories and for women that comes out to about 500 calories. The two fasting days can’t be sequential (thank goodness!) and you can move them around week to week.

Author Mosley says that he has lost 20 pounds on his diet. Other celebrities claim similar successes. They credit a decrease in the hormone IGF-1 for most of the result, which they say increases fat burning and reduces Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

This IGF-1 hormone received a lot of attention when a village in Ecuador was discovered to have essentially no cancer or diabetes and residents enjoyed unusually long lives. Research on these luck people found that they had extremely low levels of this IGF-1 hormone. Oh, yeah, one down side was that most of the villagers were less than 4 feet tall, again probably due to this IGF-1 hormone. That’s a trade-off, if there ever was one.

There are some issues with this diet. Eating on 500 or 600 calories in a day is not healthy. You should expect to feel tired and cranky on your fasting days. Some experts worry that this “on again, off again” fasting can develop into a preoccupation with food, leading to eating disorders. Mosley and Spencer don’t share that concern.

Is this a diet for the ages? This could be a quick-hit diet, if you really, really, really need to drop some weight fast for some event. It is hard to see this as a lifelong behavior, though. For that, you should choose a lifestyle diet with at least 1,200 calories every day that fits your tastes and habits. They are out there and don’t make you starve yourself.

The Hollywood Diet

2013-04-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Want to lose eight pounds in two days? Ready to give up chewing for the same two days? Maybe the Hollywood Diet is for you. Just drink the magic elixir for two days and you will lose weight and eliminate a host of toxins at the same time. What’s not to like?

The Hollywood Diet is easy to understand. You drink pre-packaged Hollywood 48-hour Miracle Diet drinks for two solid days. That’s it. You don’t eat anything else, and your only other beverages are water and zero-calorie drinks. Proponents say that they have lost as much at 16 pounds in two days. For people in a real hurry, there is not a 24-hour version available, too!

The Hollywood Diet beverage is a blend of fruit juices (strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, apple, orange, pineapple and cranberry) plus some vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3, B6, B12, C, D3, E and folic acid). A number of companies sell Hollywood Diet beverage kits. Depending on your vendor of choice, these drinks deliver between 300 and 400 calories a day.

The FDA recommends that diet plans deliver about 1,200 calories a day for healthy weight loss. Clearly, the Hollywood Diet falls short there. Like other cleanses, this is a fad (or crash) diet, not something that anyone would consider healthy. There is so little nutritive value in the Hollywood Diet beverage that you are assured of losing weight if you can last the full two days. Unfortunately, you are also pretty much assured of regaining the lost weight, since most of your loss will be water weight.

Could the Hollywood Diet plan work for you? This is a fad diet that is not safe, nor effective. You will probably lose weight, but not in a sustainable manner. The weight will come right back when you resume your normal eating patterns. It is fast, and it is easy, it just isn't healthy. If you want to lose weight there are a number of better, safer (and slower) diets on the market that can help you get there. Despite the glamorous Hollywood connection, this one is not up for any Academy awards.

Sneezing More? Blame Global Warming!

2013-04-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Allergies aren't fun. Many of us suffer from hay fever, an allergy to common plant pollen. The coming of spring is heralded by itchy eyes, sneezing and a runny nose. Despite a shelf-full of medications to treat this, doesn't it seem to be getting worse every year? Turns out, it actually is getting worse, and to some degree that is due to global warming.

Global warming is a gradual, microscopic increase in average temperatures, so it makes sense that warmer weather could also mean more blooming plants spraying pollen in every direction. Bad news: it is going to get worse, much worse.

According to new research led by Dr. Leonard Bielory of Rutgers University, pollen counts will jump to double today’s levels by 2040. A dozen years ago, pollen counts were about 8,500, on average. Dr. Bielory’s prediction is that the year 2040 should bring average counts beyond 21,000. Katchoo!

It turns out that plants will be responding to more than a slightly elevated temperature. Increased levels of carbon dioxide (the primary driver to global warming) will also stimulate the release of pollen. So, this is something of a double whammy.

Beyond sneezing and taking a lot of pills or shots, what can you do? Pollen is a contact allergen, so anything that reduces your contact with pollen will help. Some nasal sprays can block the absorption of pollen into your blood stream, so your allergic reaction never gets triggered. Check your drug store or click on the image to the right, because many effective nasal sprays are now available without a prescription.

You should also treat pollen like an invisible poison. Wash your hands after you have been outdoors. Consider taking a shower and washing your hair after a day out. And definitely stop hanging your clothes on the clothes line. It’s great for saving electricity but terrible for your allergies.

So if you can’t live in a bubble under the sea, try some of these strategies and brace yourself for the coming onslaught!

Is the Z-Pak Dangerous?

2013-03-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Many of us have used the antibiotic Zithromax to treat a sinus or upper respiratory infection. The amazing Z-Pak (as its known around our house) kills those bad bugs dead in only five days. Truly an amazing discovery. Unfortunately, the FDA is warning that that the Z-Pak can trigger heart problems.

Vanderbilt University researchers studied medical records from patients who received Zithromax (azithromycin) or other antibiotics to treat an infection. Thousands of patients' records covering nearly 15 years were reviewed. The researchers found that Z-Pak users were 2.5 times more likely to die of heart disease within five days of taking the pill than patients who took a different antibiotic or took nothing at all.

It seems that Zithromax interferes with the rhythm of the heart. People who have a heart arrhythmia are particularly susceptible to harm from Zithromax. Patients with abnormally low levels of magnesium or potassium in their blood are also at risk.

The research did not determine a cause for this side effect. Other antibiotics that are used in place of Zithromax showed similar heart problems, although at lower levels. Even with this discovery, patients take Zithromax for half as many days as competing medications, like amoxicillin, so their period of risk is shorter.

Should you still take that Z-Pak the next time you have a sinus infection? Be sure to bring up this new warning with your doctor. All medications have side effects, not just Zithromax, so you need to balance the chance of a side effect with the impact of not treating your problem.

Chances are, you will get that Z-Pak. Good luck!

The Super Immunity Diet

2013-03-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

Dr. Joel Fuhrman is no stranger to diets. His “Eat toLive” diet was all the talk last summer. Now he is back on the Dr. Oz Show with a diet that strengthens your immunities as you lose weight. Get sick less, have more energy, and get skinny. What’s not to like?

Dr. Fuhrman says that our immune systems are typically only running at about half speed. He believes that our diet is to blame. By changing what we eat, he says that we can stimulate our immune system, live to be a 100, and lose weight as a side effect.

The Super Immunity diet has four basic rules: eat nutrient-rich foods, focus on foods that are absorbed slowly, eat less meat, and chew your food more. Each of these rules plays a role in getting us to a healthier place.

Rule 1: Eat foods high in phytonutrients. That’s quite a mouthful! It means that your diet should feature foods that have a lot of antioxidants, vitamins, and folic acid, without a lot of calories. Think brightly-colored vegetables instead of bland starches and meats.

Rule 2: Eat foods that are digested slowly. Once again, the glycemic index steps forward. Dr. Fuhrman suggests eating food with a low glycemic index to avoid glucose surges and the resultant spike in insulin. This reduces fat deposits and avoids cravings shortly after your meals. It also gives your body time to extract the maximum amount of nutrition from the food, not just the calories.

Rule 3: Don’t focus on the meat. The Super Immunity diet is about the veggies, not the meat. Dr. Fuhrman considers meat a garnish, not an entrée. He suggests that meat make up only 10% of your meal. I can hear the cattle crying off in the distance.

Rule 4: Chew your food. A lot. No really, a lot. Dr. Fuhrman says that we eat too quickly, chewing our food a few times and swallowing. By chewing each bite longer, you give your body better access to the nutrition locked up in the food. Plus, you take longer to eat, so that you feel satisfied sooner and don’t necessarily eat as much.

Does this work for you? The Super Immunity diet is pretty sensible. There are no gimmicks or drastic calorie restrictions, so it is a safe diet to try. Eating less meat and more green leafy vegetables can really help your triglycerides. And eating slower has been shown to cut your calorie intake without making you feel deprived.

So give it a try and let us know how it works for you!

The Best Exercise Doesn’t Require A Gym

2013-03-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Sure, it feels great to sweat it out at the gym. Those shiny machines and the cute outfits make fitness fun and glamorous. Unfortunately for most of us, the gym life isn't enough. The critical element for many of us is how we spend the other 23½ hours of our day.

Getting 30 minutes of cardio a day is a great step toward living a healthy life. If only that was sufficient, though! As more and more of us spend the rest of our day trapped behind a desk, the “incidental exercise” that we can choose to avoid plays an increasingly important role.

Have you heard of the “10,000 steps”? This is the goal recommended by the American Heart Association for daily walking. Most of us take about half that many steps each day. Not good, but how can we improve that?

Of course, there’s an app for that. Several companies are offering dedicated devices and/or applications for smart phones that let you track your daily walking. Many of them offer clever ways to keep you engaged, like competition with your friends or engaging graphics that chart your progress. But what really matters is how many times your move your feet, and there’s no app for that.

Walking 10,000 steps a day isn't really as difficult as it sounds. There are some easy strategies that can really move you closer to this goal without requiring more than a change in habits.

Do you work in an office? How about using the printer or copier that’s further away from your desk? Those trips to get your printouts can be mini-marathons. How about taking the stairs instead of the elevator to climb a flight of stairs or two? Maybe take a victory lap around your work group after you complete a task. Really, any excuse to stand up and take a few steps can make a difference.

Stuck at home? How about a new policy of always using the bathroom that’s furthest away from where you are sitting right now? What about a walk around the block to clear your head after a brutal session of reality TV? Too cold or rainy to go out? Just march in place during those incessant commercial breaks and you can accomplish wonders.

Getting your heart going doesn't take a gym full of equipment. Just change your habits a bit and you will surprise yourself. That pedometer app on your smartphone will be proud of you!

Why is Celiac Disease Increasing?

2013-03-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

The gluten free diet has been trendy for several years. Gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley and other grains, can trigger an abnormal intestinal response in some people. This is called celiac disease. New research has found that celiac disease is on the rise, and it is not just because testing is becoming more common. What is going on?

Celiac disease currently affects about 1% of the U.S. population. Celiac suffers have severe stomach pain and digestive distress whenever they consume food that contains even trace amounts of gluten. The pain and diarrhea are caused by damage to the tiny, finger-like projections on the inner walls of the small intestines. These fingers, called villi, are responsible for absorbing nutrients from food. When celiac disease strikes, these villi are damaged, which reduces nutrient absorption, leading to rapid weight loss and bloating. If untreated, celiac disease can lead to cancer, infertility, osteoporosis and even death.

Doctors Chella David and Joseph Murray at the Mayo Clinic observed that the incidence of celiac disease has quadrupled since 1950. Some of the increase can be attributed to improved testing. Modern diagnostics include a simple blood test that detects gluten antibodies. Doctors have also observed a high correlation between Type I diabetes and celiac disease (they share a gene), so people with diabetes are typically tested for celiac disease.

Another explanation for the increase in celiac disease rates could be our modern lifestyle. Much of our food was not available in 1950. Wheat and other grains are cross-bred and genetically modified. The processing techniques are vastly different than in past decades. Plus, our diets are so rigorously controlled that our bodies have lost the ability to cope with food-triggered stresses.

How can you use this information? Clearly, if you are experiencing repeated bouts of stomach pain and diarrhea, you should seek treatment. People with untreated celiac disease are four times more likely to die than the general population.

If you are diagnosed with celiac disease, treatment is simple, although challenging. Avoiding gluten is easy to say and hard to do. Gluten hides in many processed foods. For example, nearly every Campbell’s soup contains gluten! Sauces and seasonings bear careful label-reading, too. But with good eyesight and a bit of care, you can enjoy life without gluten in your life!

Want to Lose Weight? Put Your Money Where Your Tummy Is!

2013-03-14T00:00:00.000-07:00

Losing weight is hard. Even with a diet buddy, it is difficult to stick with a diet, especially during those agonizing plateau periods. Staying motivated is key, with temptation around every corner. The Mayo Clinic tried something creative: they paid people to lose weight.

People pay their children for good grades. Employees pay bonuses to their staff for exceptional achievement. It only makes sense that someone would think of paying for weight loss. The Mayo Clinic did exactly that; paying their employees to lose weight and keep it off.

This was an in-depth study of the concept of paying for weight loss. The Mayo Clinic selected 100 clinic employees or their dependents to participate for an entire year. All volunteers had a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30. This is the level at which the centers for Disease Control considers a person to be obese.

All of the volunteers had the same goal: lose four pounds per month. They were dividing into groups to compare their success rates. Some people were placed into an “incentive” group, where there were rewards and penalties based on their monthly weigh-in results. If they lost four pounds over the month, they received $20. If they didn’t lose at least four pounds, they paid $20 into a bonus pool. At the end of the year-long study, people in the incentive group who were still participating were entered into a drawing to win all of the “penalty” money that was paid for missing monthly weight loss goals.

The results were not surprising. People in the incentive group lost more weight than people without a financial incentive. The incentive group volunteers lost an average of nine pounds over the year, while participants in the non-incentive group lost an average of a bit over two pounds.

Also not surprisingly, people in the incentive group were more than twice as likely to remain in the study for the entire year. Clearly, they wanted a shot at winning the drawing for the penalty payments.

What does this mean for you? Check with your employer about their weight loss incentive program. Nearly nine out of ten large companies now offer some variation on pay for performance dieting. You might discover that your employer has such a program.

If your employer doesn't have a dollars for pounds incentive, make up one of your own! Get together with some weight loss buddies, pick a diet, and agree to a reward and penalty program. It doesn't have to be $20, just as long as it means something to the group. The important part is to build a mutual encouragement system that can keep you motivated long enough that your diet program becomes a lifestyle program. Only then can those hard-earned lost pounds stay off.

So aren't you really just betting on yourself?

Time Change Equals Heart Attack?

2013-03-10T00:00:00.000-08:00

Twice a year, most parts of the U.S. adjust their clocks. We “spring forward” in the spring and “fall backward” in the fall, moving ahead or back an hour. This anachronism of a day before pervasive outdoor lighting is a bad idea that just won’t die. In addition to being a real nuisance, did you know that daylight savings time is dangerous to your health?

Our bodies are governed by an internal clock. These circadian rhythms adjust our metabolism, make us sleepy, trigger digestive system activities (we’ll just leave it at that) and play a huge role in our secretion of hormones. When we get jet lag, we are feeling the effects of messing with your circadian rhythms. Time change is a mini-jet lag experience that most of us suffer, twice a year.

There have been several studies on the rate of car accidents on the day following time change. They found that traffic accidents increase 8% on the day following the time change. This might be a good day to take the bus?

Your car might be easy to repair after a time change-related accident, but your heart is a different matter. Since our circadian rhythms drive changes to our blood pressure, heart rate and vascular dilation, it makes sense that losing an hour of sleep might be bad for your heart.

A study, reported in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, studied this very matter. They found a 5% increase in heart attacks immediately following the spring time change compared to the previous week. Yes, a 5% increase, just because of a lost hour that doesn’t return until autumn.

What can you do? Awareness is a good first step. Take that first week a bit easier. Maybe the Monday after time change isn’t the best time to start a new workout routine. Don’t schedule stressful events for Monday, either. There’s no reason to go looking for heart trouble. Tuesday will come soon enough.

Another approach that can help is to make the time change more gradual. Maybe move your clocks up by 30 minutes Friday night and 30 minutes Saturday night. Obviously, this will make you march to a different drum all day Saturday, but what is your heart worth, anyway?

So take it easy on yourself following the spring sleep hijacking. Your heart will thank you!

Cancer Tests To Avoid

2013-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Cancer is a concern for all of us. Men have a 44% chance of developing cancer and women have a 38% chance. Given these daunting odds, it makes sense to make sure that you don’t have cancer lurking in your body, right? Well, it turns out that some cancer tests should be considered carefully before signing up.

Cancer testing is becoming more commonplace every day. Strip malls, in-home parties, even sporting events now feature hundreds of screening tests without any recommendation from a doctor. New research has found that many of these early detection tests actually reduce lifespan and quality of life, and should be considered carefully.

These medical tests can have four outcomes: positive (you have this disease), negative (you don’t have this disease), false positive (you are told that you have this disease but you really don’t) and false negative (you are told that you don’t have this disease but you really do). Obviously, the true negative result is what we all want.

A false positive cancer test result can cause painful or even dangerous procedures to eliminate a cancer that doesn't actually exist. Many cancer treatments are basically poisons that kill cancer cells slightly more quickly than they kill healthy cells. This is an acceptable risk only in cases where the cancer is certain to take your life. With a false positive test, you are taking on all of the risk without any of the reward.

A false negative test is a cruel joke. You receive the test results with a happy sigh and go on about your life, believing that everything is as it should be. You may even overlook symptoms that would otherwise take you to the doctor because you truly believe that everything is going great, you just had the test, right? This can delay treatment of a curable situation past the point of no return.

A true positive test is terrible, but not always because it means that you have cancer. In many cases, the treatment for the cancer is worse than the effects of the cancer itself. This is especially true for some types of breast, bladder, lung, mouth and prostate cancer. It is quite common for people to die of old age that have undiagnosed cancer that played no role in their death. The side effects of treating these mild, slow-growing cancers can far outweigh the negligible increase in mortality.

So, should you avoid these tests? Like most things, it depends. If you have a family history of a particular form or cancer, the test is probably indicated. If you suddenly have symptoms that could be cancer-related, the test is probably indicated. First, though, have a frank discussion with your doctor. Learn about the possible side effects of the test itself. Ask about the impact of NOT treating a positive test result. How accurate is this particular test? What is the next step if the test is positive? Your doctor can put everything into perspective far better than the clerk at the mall “whole body scanning” center. Once you get the facts, then you can make an informed decision.

Lack of Sleep Hurts Your Body

2013-03-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

Ah, sleep, Nature’s soft nurse (to steal from Shakespeare). The gift we don’t appreciate as children, and then yearn for as adults. Few of us actually get “enough” sleep, yet we all trade off sleep for other activities. But did you know that too little sleep can actually hurt your body?

We have all experienced the consequences of lack of sleep: inattention, poor judgment, irritability and much more. The actual medical toll on our bodies caused by lack of sleep has not been well understood, until now. New research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks at the physical damage caused by sleep deprivation. The results are frightening.

Doctors on the faculty of the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom studied 26 volunteers as they suffered from too little sleep. Specifically, the research looked at changes to the genes in the blood which control the body’s manufacturing of the building blocks that we need to survive.

The research started off with each volunteer sleeping for up to 10 hours a night for a week. This was pretty soft duty! Then it got real. They spent the next week getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night. Their blood was genetically mapped, comparing the genes before and after the sleep deprivation.

More than 700 genetic differences were measured. These changes were associated with stress reactions, circadian rhythms, metabolism control, tissue inflammation and immune responses. This helps to explain observed relationships between lack of sleep and poor health, including heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and cognitive disorders.

What can you do with this new knowledge? Certainly, this research should be considered when planning your day. Do you want to see that movie that starts at 10:30pm, or would you like to avoid the flu? Would you rather get up at 5:00am to complete that assignment or plan your work better and skip the diet next month? Our daily decisions have consequences, and this new research drives home just how important it is to get enough sleep.

Does this mean that buying a new pillow might be a medical expense?

The Mediterranean Diet Could Save Your Life

2013-02-28T00:00:00.000-08:00

We have written about the Mediterranean Diet before. This is a “safe and sane” diet that focuses on fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts and olive oil. One of my favorite aspects is the recommendation of a glass of red wine with dinner. You trade out red meat for fish and fowl, but otherwise you aren't kept away from too much delicious food. New research shows that the Mediterranean Diet can save your life by protecting you from heart attack, stroke and heart disease. Want the best for your body? Adopt the Mediterranean Diet with extra dollop of extra virgin olive oil.

The lead researcher on this study was Dr. Ramón Estruch, from the Department of Internal Medicine at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Spain. The results were just published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. Expect a guest appearance on Dr. Oz in the coming weeks.

The study followed 7,400 volunteers over a five year period. The volunteers were men between 55 and 80 years old and women between 60 and 80 years old. There were slightly more women than men. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of the three groups, with the same number of people in each group.

The control group was asked to follow a low-fat diet. The second group was asked to follow a Mediterranean Diet with the addition of nuts, about 30 grams of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds a day. The third group followed a Mediterranean Diet with the addition of extra virgin olive oil, about 4 tablespoons every day. All three groups received periodic follow-up visits from doctors over the course of the study.

At the end of the study period, it was observed that the group following the Mediterranean Diet plus extra virgin olive oil had a 30% lower risk of heart attack, stroke, or death due to heart disease than the low fat diet group. The group following the Mediterranean Diet plus nuts had a 28% lower risk of these same issues.

The researchers credit the polyphenols and tocopherols in extra virgin olive oil for reducing inflammation that leads to heart disease. The nuts contain lower levels of anti-inflammatories, so the beneficial impact was reduced.

So what is the take-away from this research? Clearly the Mediterranean Diet is good for your heart health. The addition of extra virgin olive oil and/or nuts seems to make the diet even more effective. Plus, both additions are delicious. This seems like a great way to control your weight and live long enough to enjoy it!

The Aztec Diet

2013-02-25T00:00:00.000-08:00

The Aztec people ate a lot of the chia seed. Now famous for sprouting in the shape of silly pets, the chia seed is a nutritional powerhouse. The Aztec Diet, based on the chia seed, can help you lose weight and reduce disease.

The Aztec Diet avoids modern fast foods that cause blood sugar swings and insulin dumps. Instead, the diet focuses on beans, corn, bulgar, quinoa, chia sees, turkey and fish. These low glycemic index foods will lessen cravings and let you lose weight in a safe and controlled manner.

Dr. Bob Arnot wrote The Aztec Diet as a way to build healthy eating habits. Foods are broken down into three groups, based on their carbohydrate content. Meals attempt to balance carb intake and nutritional content.

The first phase of the Aztec Diet introduces you to the chia seed. The chia seed has more omega-3 fatty acids than a similar serving of salmon, three times the iron of spinach, 15 times the magnesium of broccoli and six times the calcium of milk. You learn to make chia smoothies and get your body set for a new way of eating.

After two weeks of chia smoothies, phase two adds solid meals to the regime. Once you reach your goal weight, phase three gives you rules to live by for a lifetime of healthy eating and weight control. The book has recipes and how-to hints to keep you away from fast food and on the straight and narrow.

Dr. Arnot also recommends strenuous exercise, especially cardio and interval training. This, balanced with responsible Aztec eating, is his path to a healthy life. Have you tried the Aztec Diet? Click on the Comment button and share your knowledge.