Increasing Evidence Links High Glycemic Index Foods and Dairy Products to Acne from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

For all you teens and adults that suffer from acne, read this:

Increasing Evidence Links High Glycemic Index Foods and Dairy Products to Acne from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

Rely on Yourself!

I don't know about you but I am tired of people telling me what to do, when to eat, and how to live. And this is coming from someone who tells people what to do for a living as I am a registered dietitian in private. (Note: Apologies to my family for all of my freely given, unwanted advice!)

With that said I am sensing, in addition to electronic overload, collectively we are getting sick and tired of everyone being an expert on everything. EVERYTHING. I can go to the dry cleaners and hear advice on my 401K. Go to the hair salon and be told I need to add chia seeds to my Greek yogurt and POM to my morning smoothie. Don't get me wrong, some of the advice I hear is really helpful.

But to sort through just one episode of Dr. Oz is overwhelming. Dr. Oz (maybe he is friends with the wizard?) makes us think we can always do so much more.......and more and even more until we've bought every supplement known to man and don't have any money left for real food. And that is just the beginning of all the experts who are parading around talking about everything from toe nails to wine.

We can see by looking around us that all this advice has not gotten us, as a country, in better physical or fiscal shape. So I suggest we go back to the good old days when we listened to our inner voice. This is called self-reliance. Maybe Thoreau was way ahead of his time.

Mixed Messages / Pepsi and Beyonce

I love Beyonce, I really do. She has worked hard since she was a child and besides having an amazing voice and stage presence she is a beautiful woman. She deserves everything she has worked so hard to achieve. But when I hear Pepsi just signed her for $50,000,000, yes fifty million dollars, something doesn't sit right with me. Maybe it is because I am involved with childhood obesity prevention and the black community has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity.

While sweetened beverages and fried snack foods (Pepsi owns Frito-Lay) are not the only cause of childhood obesity and Pepsi does sell other non sweetened beverages, fifty million dollars could go a long way towards instituting product changes and advertising campaigns that could improve the lives of millions children. Pepsi said they will support Beyonce's creative projects. Maybe she will decide to use Pepsi's platform to help the company find new innovative, healthy products. She would be a fantastic spokesperson for young kids. Partnerships of this magnitude have incredible potential for positive change. I hope Beyonce and Pepsi see the opportunity and run with it.

The Holidays are Here!

At this time of year, as a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, I am usually asked by journalists what does a nutritionist eat at holiday parties. After working hard all year to stay in shape, I don't want to start the New Year on a diet. So here are my holiday party eating guidelines:

1. Eat light the day of a party. More veggies, salads, grilled fish, or a GoBeFull smoothie concoction. In general during December I try to eat lighter to accommodate all the holiday events.
2. Avoid white flour. This eliminates most cookies, cakes, bread, crackers, and pasta.
3. Avoid trans fats. This eliminates the rest of the cookies, many other desserts, and snack mixes.
4. If there is a dessert I love, I will take a few bites.
5. Avoid anything deep fried.
6. Eat delicious pieces of chocolate.
7. Eat grilled fish.
8. Eat raw or cooked veggies and luscious fresh fruit. A few bites of cheese are good too.
9. Drink two drinks. My favorites include dirty martinis, fine scotch, or red wine.
10. If I am invited to a sit down dinner party, I eat what is served. There will always be something that fits into my guidelines. I never make special food requests to my hosts. No matter what is served, I am grateful for the luxury of someone else making a meal for me. The love and labor involved warms my heart and fills me with gratitude.

Halloween - Who Will Win the Candy War?

No matter how hard you try, it is almost impossible to avoid candy at Halloween! Candy at Halloween is like Easter eggs at Easter, gelt at Hanukah, and candy canes at Christmas. It is a fact of life. So this year, instead of battling with the kids over when, where, and how to eat the candy, here are some suggestions that might help sweeten this ghoulish holiday.

Limit the Container Size: Pick a small plastic pumpkin with a strong handle or a mini-sized shopping bag. Make a rule that kids have to carry their own candy. This will help limit the amount. When they start complaining that the container is too heavy, it’s time to go home.

Separate the Candy: They can make two piles: acceptable and not acceptable! Keep ones they like and throw out unwrapped or damaged candy. Tell them you or dad will take the candy they don’t like to work. That leaves only the candy they want.

You can take this sorting process a step further and look for candy that contains partially hydrogenated or Trans fats. These types of fats are artery clogging fats. So if much of their favorite pile is full of hydrogenated fats, this would be a good time to cut back on other artery clogging fats like French fries, nuggets, prepared baked sweets, and burgers.

Limit the Amount: The first few days most kids go hog wild eating candy but then it usually tapers off. In fact, by week two many kids have forgotten about the candy all together. If the candy obsession lasts more than a week or two, it can be helpful to set up guidelines to deal with the remaining supply. Limiting candy to a piece or two after dinner is a good idea. If it is not gone by Thanksgiving, throw it out!

Brush your Teeth: This is an opportunity to explain to kids how cavities form. Tell them they need to brush their teeth within a few minutes of eating candy because the sugar in the candy reacts with bacteria in their mouths to form acids which attack the teeth causing cavities. If you have not already banned sodas from the house, this might be a good time to start.

Adjust Snacks: Since you know your kids will be eating candy, if not theirs probably someone else’s, make snacks healthy. Offer sliced fresh fruit, Trans fat-free popcorn, low-fat cheese sticks, fresh veggies and hummus, or whole grain pretzel sticks. Don’t keep sweets like ice cream or other sugared snacks around at this time.

Adjust Meals: During the first week or so, make meals that are lower in carbohydrates to adjust for the extra candy intake. Avoid pasta, potatoes, rice, and breaded foods. Definitely avoid sweets and junk food. Don’t send packaged snacks to school. Eat more protein, vegetables, and healthy fats like olive oil, avocado and nuts.

While this may seem like a lot of work, it beats the alternative of turning into a witch by disallowing candy. Candy at Halloween, as long as kids are eating other healthy food, will not permanently ruin your child’s health. This balanced approach leads to happy memories and a cease fire.

Bubble Tea Balls Might Cause Cancer

Say it ain't so! I love bubble tea especially with tapioca balls after a hot bath and a scrub at Spa World in Centreville, Virginia. Spa World is a Korean bath house that offers multiple hot water pools, saunas, scrubs, massages, and really good Korean food.

Bubble tea balls are round tapicoa balls that are placed in the bottom of a glass of iced tea or blended fruit drinks. These drinks are amazingly refreshing after a hot bath or sauna. A study out of Germany says they may be cancer causing due to a chemical used in manufacturing the balls.

Another favorite food, bashed and dashed. Will keep you posted if there are updates. In the meantime, I still plan to bathe and scrub at Spa World. I will search for another favorite refreshing drink to help me cool down.

Do Your Resolutions Have Heart?

I always like to write a blog half way into the first month of the new year to see how everyone is doing on the commitments they just signed on for. It is amazing how important we think our resolutions are until we are face to face with the work of maintaining them!

I recently read the Steve Jobs biography which not only did I love but which also got me back in touch with many of the ideologies that drove my thinking in my late teens and twenties - the late 60's and early 70's. I have been rereading some seminal books of that time like Autobiography of a Yogi, The Teachings of Don Juan - A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, and some old nutrition books by Arnold Ehret that I have saved.

I came across a passage in The Teachings of Don Juan that spoke to me. Of course I am in a different place now than I was 40 years ago when I first read the book, but good books have a way of evoking new meaning no matter how many time you reread them.

Don Juan, the aging the sorcerer says, "My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand. Now I do understand it. I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor's question has meaning now. Does the path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you."

So ask yourself now, "Do your resolutions have heart?'" Your answer may help explain why you are or not keeping them.

Does tightening the reins make you eat more?

As I start to begin my Thanksgiving preparations, I find myself eating more even though I want to be eating less. A strange but common paradox. I was thinking I should cut back a little before the holiday especially since I know I will be entertaining out of town guests, eating out more, and then going on a vacation the day after Thanksgiving. Yet thoughts of deprivation can often lead to overindulgence.

So instead of tightenting my grip, I have decided in the spirit of Thanksgiving to just let go and be thankful for whatever I put into my mouth. While I do not plan to go "hog wild" over Thanksgiving, I do plan to keep this mantra in mind: Bless, savor, and enjoy!

Seven Day Count Down

Seven days until Thanksgiving: family, friends, good food and drink. My advice is to enjoy the day and don't worry about what you eat. (Remember to always drink responsibly.) Did you notice I said "day?" That is the first key to starting off the holiday season on the right foot. After Thursday go back to your regular eating (and exercise) otherwise what starts as just one day often morphs into another 39 days of overindulgence.

To avoid having to face the music on January 1st, here are a few things to consider as you prepare your Thanksgiving feast:

1. Avoid using hydrogenated fats in pies and baked goods.
2. Have a salad and at least two or three vegetables.
3. Use olive or canola oil or Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter (half olive or canola) instead of margarine in cooking.
4. Offer fresh fruit with the other yummy desserts.
5. Don't drink your calories other than wine or spirits, avoid high calorie mixers.
6. Add some whole grain bread to your stuffing.

Which reminds me of one cardinal rule: Don't stuff yourself to the gills. Eat until you are full - not stuffed. Then in a few hours, if you are hungry go back for more. A stuffed turkey is good, a stuffed belly is not.

Prevent Holiday Weight Gain

Right about now, clients start to ask how they can keep weight off over the holidays. Here are three simple things you can do:

1. Watch your alcohol consumption. If you know you will be drinking, cut back on starchy foods during the day. Eat more veggies and lean protein.


2. Watch the sweets at work. Draw a line in the frosting and "just say no" to the plates of goodies that will be passing your desk. Bring a healthy snack from home for the 4:00 slump.


3. Get back to the gym now and don't wait for the New Year to begin again.

Try these for starters. I will be giving tips from now until the end of January.

Cinch! Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches - Popular Diet and Lifestyle Books Reviewed by Food and Nutrition Experts: Members of the American Dietetic Association

Here is a book review I did for one of the latest diet books. If you are vegan or almost there, you might be interested. It is also great for moving towards a more plant based diet.

Cinch! Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds and Lose Inches - Popular Diet and Lifestyle Books Reviewed by Food and Nutrition Experts: Members of the American Dietetic Association

Juicing and Cleansing

Lately many of my clients have been asking about juicing and cleansing diets. I always tell them juice diets or fasts are good for the short term but they don't work for weight loss. A "fast" is fast; a quick way to drop some pounds, give your body a rest from too much sugar, salt, refined grains, and bad fats, and help transition you to healthier eating.

Long term, sustainable weight loss requires slow changes that last. But, as we all know, change is hard. So one good way to start the process of healthier eating is to do a three day juice fast or cleanse. Drinking juice infuses your body with a powerful punch of nutrients that can help revitalize you and get you unhooked from all those addictive fatty, sugary foods. Plus it gives you a vacation from, "what am I going to eat."

I have layed out a three day plan in my new ebook, GoBeFull Juice Diet and Cleanse. Download the ebook from http://www.gobefull.com and see what you think.

Neighborhood Gardens

The Health Nut has awakened from her winter slumber and has been noticing garden plots all over the suburbs. Now that is a beautiful site (or sight). Soon the burbs could look like the hills of Tuscany where every useable plot of land is planted with vegetable gardens, grape vines, olive trees, and other types of fruit trees. How refreshing!

Now is a great time to clear a spot and go to your nearest nursery and pick up some seedlings or plant your own seeds. Gardening is so much fun and it is good exercise. The rewards are worth the hassle.

First make sure you put up a good fence that deer cannot jump over (they can clear 7 feet) and watch out for other critters. If you have a dog, he or she will keep the varmints away. You might want to add a scarecrow as the birds can wreck havoc on a garden.

Second add some worm castings to the soil along with some good topsoil. The worm castings (a nice euphemism) for worm poop adds nutrients to the soil. The topsoil helps the soil hold water in the dry weather by breaking up the red clay of Virginia.

Thirdly, mark what the vegetables are so when they start to grow you won't confuse them with weeds.

Then have at it and enjoy the process.

Stay tuned for more gardening updates.

Red Mango

Next time you are racing through an airport starving, try Red Mango. Really good. The POM yogurt with fresh fruit, granola, and mini chocolate chips is so refreshing. Healthy, delicious, and fast.

The Holidays are Here

Before you start indulging with reckless abandon, take a moment now to think about your New Year's resolutions. If they relate to diet, weight, exercise, and fitness or general well being, then "Whoa Nelly."

Hold on tight, grab a pen and paper (remember those), and start writing down what you want to be when the new year rolls in:

1. Thinner
2. Fitter
3. More in control
4. Full of vitality
5. A non smoker
6. ......... (fill in the blank)

Notice there is no "Happy" on the list. Happiness is not a state in itself but comes from other actions like being committed, having purpose, feeling good, helping others, and reaching your goals (whatever they may be), to name just a few. There is no right or wrong here.

Of course if you can just stay in the present moment you will happy because you are not thinking about anything but the moment! Staying present is a very tough exercise especially with a Blackberry buzzing in your pocket.

Back to making what you want happen. Creating a vision is the first step to achieving success in any endeavor. You've got to really want whatever it is you want to achieve and you have to envision it before you can have it.

Once the desire is there, you make a plan. Then the work begins. Having a plan and not sticking to it won't get you there. That does not mean you can't be flexible and revise the plan as you go along. Also no plan is perfect. You don't have to do things 100% to see results. You just have to do your plan well enough that the old ways that were not working are replaced with actions that work.

It sounds simple but it is really hard. You may have to continually do battle with yourself until the new behaviors take on a life of their own. When this happens, the endorphins that flow from feeling happy (meaning achieving your goals) motivate you to keep going. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So go for it now and use this month as a laboratory for what you want to create in the coming year.

It's Halloween

Tonight's the night! If you decide to indulge, pick out your favorite candy (or candies) and ENJOY every last bite.

Then...have a plan for tomorrow. Either throw away what's left or put it in the freezer (watch out if you love frozen Snickers) or ration it till it is gone. If you take the latter two approaches, compensate every day for the extra calories by reducing your intake of other sweets and carbs or upping your exercise.

Simple and it works.

A New Type of Birth Control

Here is another reason that BPA or bisphenol used in plastics should be avoided. According to a recent study involving Chinese factory workers, workers who had BPA in their urine also had impaired semen quality. This translates to a drop in semen concentration, drop in overall sperm count, and drop in sperm vitality and motility.

While many think that low dose exposure presents little concern, remember that BPA is everywhere. So while we might not be getting the intense exposure of a factory worker, small doses do accumulate. BPA is in baby bottles, plastic containers, dental sealants, and food and beverage container liners, to name just a few. If you eat take out, microwave in plastic, or eat and drink from cans, you are exposed.

Go to Target and purchase a set of glass containers for the microwave. Anchor makes good ones with tight fitting lids. You can also order them on Amazon.

The Health Nut believes the old adage, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Don't Let Halloween Turn You Into a Candy Witch!

Do you dread the candy holidays? They start in February with Valentine's Day and continue year round with the biggest fest happening on Halloween. What is a mother or father to do? (If you don't have kids, well then, you might welcome the chance to indulge!)

The good news is that kids usually forget about the candy after a few weeks. Sometimes letting them go nuts for a couple of days gets the major desire to gorge on sweets out of their systems. If you limit your celebration to one party, your chances of reducing the bounty are increased.

However, if you plan to go out trick or treating, here are a few suggestions to help you deal with the onslaught:

1. Buy a limited quantity of the treats so you and your family won't be tempted to eat leftovers.
2. Read the labels on the bags and look for candy without hydrogenated fats or palm oil. These are higher in trans and saturated fats. Obviously it is difficult to avoid sugar.
3. Make young children carry their own plastic pumpkin or bag. When they start complaining that the container is too heavy, it's time to go home. (Of course this does not apply to infants.)
4. When you get home, throw away any open wrappers or suspicious looking ones. There are many systems for sorting: likes and dislikes, chocolate vs non chocolate, etc. Sorting is so much fun!
5. Plan ahead. Knowing the candy is coming, start to avoid fast food and cut down on other foods loaded with fat and sugar. Eat more fruits and veggies.
6. Make a plan about the candy prior to trick or treating. Here are some suggestions:

• Set a time limit on how much they can have in a day.
• Set a time limit when the candy moves to the freezer.
• Set a time limit when the candy will get thrown away.
• For cavity prevention, be sure they either brush their teeth or rinse their mouths after eating candy.

Planning ahead and setting reasonable guidelines will help you avoid being seen as the witch this Halloween season.

Why Stay Alkaline?

Here's proof that what often seems like wacky information can actually be sound advice. About forty years ago (yes that is right) when I was a student at the University of Arizona, I visited a "nutritionist." While the guy was not a "certified nutritionist," meaning he did not have a degree in nutrition from a university, he was a so-called expert in fasting and cleansing the body. For those of you who think cleansing is a new phenom, it has been around for thousands of years, though in many different forms and incarnations.

The nutritionist told me that I needed to keep my body alkaline. He had me test my urine every morning with PH strips to see whether I was more acid or alkaline. Keeping the body more alkaline, he said, would promote good health.

How do you make the body more alkaline? By eating lots of vegetables and fruits. Even acid fruits become alkaline in the body. Alkalinity promotes good bone health and promotes good kidney function. Too much acid in the bloodstream causes muscle wasting. "Muscle loss is the body's way of adapting to excess acid, so is bone loss" according to the recent issue of the Nutrition Action newsletter.

What foods create acidity in the body? Carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, oats, sweets), even whole grains, proteins (meat, fish, dairy). Oils are neutral and luckily red wine and beer are slightly alkaline producing. Fruits and vegetables are highly alkaline. The PRAL or potential renal acid load lists foods that drop the acid load. Foods with a high negative PRAL (like fruits and veggies) neutralize foods with high positive PRALs.

This does not mean eliminate all animal protein or carbs. Your protein intake in grams should be approximately half your body weight in pounds. Interestingly, while animal proteins are acid producing, beans are less acid producing than the same amount of protein from beef. However, "the acid producing quality depends on how many sulfur-containing amino acids (protein's building blocks) are in the protein. There is a wide range in both plant and animal sources so it is misleading to refer to protein as plant or animal, unless you know the overall picture."

Limit your carbs to about 6-8 servings and make those whole grains (see my GoBeFull book for portions sizes; http://www.gobefull.com/) and increase your intake of fruits and veggies to eleven servings a day. While eleven servings seems like a lot of fruits and veggies, it is not that hard if you eat more salads, vegetarian entrees, and snack on fresh fruit. Raisins (watch the serving size) have the highest PRAL. Spinach is also really high.

Add in regular high impact, weight bearing exercise and Vitamin D (about 800 mg./day) to insure strong bones.

Just so you know, that wacky nutritionist who told me to stay alkaline went on to invent Juice Plus! Sometimes what seems like quackery in one decade turns out to be common sense in another.

The Garden of Eatin'

Down on the farm this weekend, another health nut named Charlotte (no relation to Wilbur) and I picked pears, ate persimmons right off the tree, and cracked open black walnuts. We picked kale, cabbage, peppers, lettuce, and ate some strawberries left on the vine. Sounds fun doesn't it? Here are the details in case you are interested:

There is a giant pear tree that sits in the orchard. Its pears fall from the tree and land in both the orchard and in the pasture where the cows graze. The cows discovered the joy of eating pears when they landed on their side of the fence. When they finished the pears on their side,wanting more, they broke the pasture fence trying to get to the pears that covered the ground on the orchard side. There were hundreds of pears slowly fermenting and attracting tons of bees. Two little cows actually got out by rolling under the split rail fence which caused the big cows still in the pasture to freak and moo continually. Who knew cows liked pears!

We took hammers to the black walnut pods that are all over the ground only to find the nuts inside were soft, thin, and black (black is good) and basically inedible. There are so many on the ground that it is hard to walk and if you are not careful, your feet will come out from under you and you will fall. Falling is always good for a laugh.

We then moved on to the persimmons. Climbing the ladder I found the softest, persimmons I could reach. Trouble is unless a persimmon is perfectly ripe, the first bite is sweet and warm (warm from the sun), but then all of a sudden your mouth feels like you ate chalk. So much for all the persimmons.

Next we took the ladder over to the pear tree and started picking. We ignored the bees and the fermentation under our feet. (The cows on the other side of the tree in the field ignored us.) We picked tons of pears but got the pear picker basket (a long pole with an orange basket on the end, actually an apple picker) stuck in the tree. Charlotte climbed the tree and, while hugging the giant limb, used the pole that the basket used to be attached to, to try and reach the basket which was now entangled in the leaves. When that failed to work, we moved on to a branch trimmer with a long blade. Charlotte was great at holding the long pole and getting the blade under the basket and making it fall to the ground. It even had a pear in it when it landed! We took our bounty back to the porch and finished our Scrabble game and our beers (yes health nuts drink beer) and then went to the garden in search of some produce.

We picked kale, cabbage, hot red peppers (to dry), bell peppers, Poblano peppers, and some lavender and oregano. Cooked all the greens and peppers together in olive oil, added some fresh garlic, grated parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of pine infused balsamic vinegar. It was spectacular eating.

A day on the farm usually beats a day at the mall. I guarantee you will laugh more and spend less !