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Archive for July, 2009

Jet Lag – Not as Harmless as You May Think

Dear Timi,
I travel a lot on business, mostly to the Far East. In the beginning, I have had some symptoms of jet lag, mostly being fatigued for a few days. I was hoping that I would get used to long distance travel and changing time zones. Over time, however, my symptoms have worsened and I now seem unable to get back into my regular sleep pattern for weeks. What should I do? I have to travel, but I fear that suffering from constant jet lag is going to affect my health.

Dear Reader,
Jet lag, also called desynchronosis, affects many air travelers who travel across different time zones. The cause is the inability of the body to adjust fast enough to a new schedule. This can lead to fatigue, insomnia, irritability as well as digestive discomforts, such as constipation or diarrhea. Most people can adjust their circadian rhythm to a new situation within a few days, depending on the geographical distances they travel.

Direction also matters. Travelers flying north or south stay close to the same time zone and therefore experience fewer problems. Those going east, on the other hand, “lose time” by flying against the clock, if you will. Respectively, those flying west “gain” time. By traveling to the Far East, depending on the route you’re taking, you may unfortunately experience the severest symptoms of jet lag.

You are right to be apprehensive about your reaction to jet lag. Frequent flyers like you are at risk of developing chronic symptoms of jet lag, which then indeed may become cause for concern. Here is a reason: A small part in our brain, called the hypothalamus, is in charge of activating a number of diverse body functions, such as hunger, thirst and sleep. It also helps to regulate body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar and certain hormones. If the hypothalamus acts out of sync with the environment, it causes the kind of problems we experience when we’re jet lagged. If this inner “confusion” continues for a long time and without reprieve, it may lead to a series of potential health problems, such as elevation of blood pressure, blood glucose and hormonal imbalances.

Assuming that you cannot simply change your work schedule or find another line of work, I can only advise you to apply any means necessary to minimize the effects of your jet lag before things get worse. I suggest you start with the most obvious remedies at your disposal. First and foremost, stay in shape. A physically fit body can handle a lot more abuse than a frail one. So, exercise, eat nutritious food and rest as much as you can whenever you find some downtime. Second, don’t add toxins to your system, such as alcohol, nicotine and caffeine. Drink plenty of water instead. Third, spoil yourself as often and as much as possible. If you can afford it, travel first class or business class where the seats are wider and give you enough leg room to bed down. Be discriminating about your hotel accommodations. Your sleep is interrupted enough without additional disturbances from noisy streets and the likes.

There are also a number of “anti jet lag diets” you may want to look into. I personally find most of them rather cumbersome and hard to follow, though.

The effectiveness of hormonal treatments of jet lag, e.g. with Melatonin, is still disputed among the experts. Melatonin is the hormone released by the hypothalamus to promote sleep. You have to start taking it days before your departure, but it may make your symptoms worse if you don’t get the timing right.

I also advise strongly against taking sleeping pills to fight jet lag – especially before or during your flight. Sleeping pills put you in a comatose state during which you will remain more or less immobilized for long periods of time. Such prolonged immobility in an uncomfortable position may lead to the forming of blood clots with potentially fatal results.

If your jet lag symptoms keep getting worse, you should definitely consult with your physician and see what else can be done in terms of medication. The worst you can do is to ignore the messages your body is sending you. Safe trip!

Picky eaters – How concerned should you be if your child refuses to eat right?

Dear Timi,
My three year old must be the pickiest eater in the world. I’m having the hardest time to make him eat at least one full meal a day. It is beginning to concern me that he may not get even his most basic nutritional needs met. I have tried many things to trick him into eating without much success and I’m reaching the end of my wits. Any ideas how to convince this little “hard head” that he must eat his food?

Dear Reader,
Most kids go through phases where they test your strength and resolve as well as their own. The dinner table is just one of the battlefields. And it is not always about food, even when food is the issue of contention. If you don’t take the bait and don’t make a big deal out of it, it will eventually subside. Keep offering your son a variety of healthy foods, and don’t ever try to bribe him with treats of lesser nutritious quality, such as candy or ice cream. It’s a myth to think that kids have naturally a sweet tooth.

In the section of this blog titled “Kids Love Healthy Foods,” I express my belief that kids learn to love healthy foods as much as they learn to love anything. All preferences in a child’s life are learned, including eating preferences. It’s up to you as the parent to channel that learning process in the right direction. The best way to go is by example. If you  practice what you preach, e.g. eat a healthy diet yourself, buy wholesome foods, keep to regular meal times, sit down for dinner with the entire family, etc. – your kids will naturally adopt. Once they reach the age where they make lifestyle decisions for themselves, your influence will be gone. So, you better lay the tracks now.

Kids can gain weight in response to stress

Dear Timi,
My 12-year old grand-daughter is getting chunky. I’m alarmed by this since she was always a healthy and athletic girl who never had any weight concerns until now. Her parents are getting divorced and I suspect that her newly acquired eating disorder has something to do with the stress she’s experiencing from this unfortunate event in her life. What can I do to prevent her from becoming overweight or worse?

Dear Reader,
Kids respond to stressful situations in similar fashion as we adults do, except that they have a more pronounced sense of helplessness added. When dramatic changes occur in a child’s life, such as their parents getting a divorce, their whole world gets turned upside down. So they reach for the few tools they have at their disposal to cope with the situation as well as they can. Dysfunctional and destructive behavior can result in response to the traumatic impact events like these have. Reaching for food may give them comfort and help them to calm down their anxieties. It may also be a cry for help. Some children blame themselves for their parents’ actions and seek ways to punish themselves out of misguided feelings of guilt. And there is also the turmoil that comes with the dissolving of a household. Sit-down family dinners give way to irregular eating habits. Unsupervised kids are not likely to maintain a healthy diet regimen on their own. If pizza delivery and fast food joints are the most convenient options, parents will be tempted to go for the easy road when they already have a hard time holding things together.

As a grandparent, provided you live nearby and you’re in a position to offer any help, you can prepare a few “extra healthy” dishes for your grand-daughter or invite her to share a sit-down meal with you every so often. Perhaps you can take her to a nearby farmers market or health food store and initiate a conversation about the benefits and pleasures of eating fresh, tasty and nutritious foods. At twelve, she can be treated like an adult in these matters and as a grandparent, you may be in a better position than her parents to bring a little stability into her life when she needs it the most. If nothing else, you let her feel that she is still being loved and cared for.

Of course, it would be naive to think that insisting on good nutrition could take anything away from the pain a child goes through in a situation like this. However, weight issues and other potential health problems only add to the damage that is being done to this young life. Therefore, I wish to encourage you to take appropriate action along the lines I mentioned, based on your observations and hopefully in agreement with the parents, if that is at all possible.

Natural Sugar or High-Fructose Corn Syrup – An Issue for Your Health?

Dear Timi,
I’m confused. For the longest time, I have been trying to avoid high-fructose corn syrup by not using items that are notoriously loaded with them, such as sodas and fruit juices that are not made from 100% fruit. I do the same for my kids. Lately, however, I read that there is no real scientific evidence that natural sugar is healthier than fructose made from corn, although some manufacturers explicitly advertise the exclusive use of natural sugar in their products as a better, albeit pricier choice.

Dear Reader,
You are not the only one who is getting mixed signals on this subject. There are indeed conflicting messages from the food manufacturing industry as well as the medical science community.

High-fructose corn syrup was developed in the 1970s as a sweetener, not just for sodas but also for countless other food products. In fact, high-fructose corn syrup serves not only as a sweetener, but more predominantly as a preservative. It is made by changing sugar, which is glucose, in cornstarch to fructose, which is another form of sugar. The end product consists of a mixture of both, fructose and glucose. Because it helps to extend the shelf life of processed foods and drinks, and because it is much cheaper than natural sugar, high-fructose corn syrup has become extremely popular among food and drink manufacturers. You will find it not only in sweet tasting products, but also in bread, cereal, pasta, soups, canned vegetables, salad dressings, ketchup and even in supposedly “healthful” items such as flavored yogurt.

So far, researchers have not been able to come up with irrefutable evidence that high-fructose corn syrup is harmful to our health. There is suspicion that our body processes the fructose from corn syrup differently than it does cane or beet sugar, and that this may alter the metabolism. It may be that this process also makes the liver release more fat into the bloodstream.

Most experts on the subject agree, however, that it is mostly the omnipresence of high-fructose corn syrup in processed foods that may promote weight gain which, in turn, can have many other negative health implications. In other words, it is perhaps not so much the quality but the quantity of the fructose we consume that is unhealthy.

For example, a single 12-ounce can of soda contains as much as a dozen teaspoons of sugar in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the average American consumes more than 62 pounds of sugar every year. Especially children and teenagers may be at risk. A few years ago, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that since 1965 milk consumption among teenagers has continuously declined – although milk is an important source of calcium which a growing body needs – while the consumption of sodas and fruit drinks has more than doubled. Our kids are overloaded with sugar from early on by a diet that is dominated by sodas and processed foods. Today, we lament an epidemic growth of childhood obesity, type-2 diabetes and hypertension. And the adults are not better off. Most of us eat too much sugar, whether we intend to or not, and the results are plain to see.

So, if you want to escape the sugar trap, limit your intake of processed foods as much as possible, stick to fresh produce, stay away from sugary drinks and, most importantly, cut down on your portion sizes no matter what you put on the table. Good luck!

For Weight Loss, Lifestyle Changes Matter More Than Dieting

Americans love to diet. Nearly 40 percent of women and 25 percent of men in America are on a weight-loss diet at any given time. Nationwide, we spend over 15 billion dollars annually on dieting-related products and services. And yet, we have the highest rates of obesity, heart disease and diabetes anywhere in the world. It is the sad truth that the vast majority of dieters eventually fail, despite their earnest efforts to control their weight.

Quick fixes are naturally more attractive than long term strategies. Diets that promise immediate results and don’t require too much effort enjoy the highest popularity. The problem is that fast results are rarely sustainable over time. The word “diet” itself suggests an only “temporary” break from one’s regular lifestyle. There is the implicit assumption that the diet will end as soon as the intended goals (i.e. weight loss, lower blood pressure, etc.) are accomplished. Dieting may be hard, but at least it’s not permanent. It is needless to say that this kind of attitude makes relapsing into old habits almost inevitable.

Of course, dieting is not altogether to be dismissed as futile because of lousy success rates. If the goal is to lose a few pounds in a hurry for swimsuit season, almost any weight loss program will do the trick. However, instead of looking for a magic bullet that does the job as quickly and as efficiently as possible, I think, it would be more beneficial to have a long-term strategy that goes beyond instantly gratifying results. In other words, instead of focusing on dieting for the single purpose of weight loss, I would rather favor a systematic development of (and permanent adherence to) an overall healthy lifestyle.

A diet plan I’m particularly fond of is called the Mediterranean diet, especially since it is rather a “lifestyle” than a “diet.” Read more »

Controlling Hunger

All of us respond differently to hunger. Some react to the slightest twinge, others wait until they are nearly starved. Filling up whenever you can eat is not a good idea. It tells your body to increase consumption. Ignoring hunger signals for too long, on the other hand, will lower your energy level to the point where the need for food may lead to uncontrolled bingeing.

Hunger Scale

 

On a scale from 1 to 10, ask yourself how strong your “hunger signals” are. When you reach stage 5 to 6, that is when you are not yet ravenous but somewhat hungry, you should think about getting something to eat. Don’t wait until you get to stage 8 to 10. If you fast too long you won’t be able to control yourself when food finally becomes available. Stop eating at stage 2 or 3 when you are satisfied but not yet full. Eat slowly since it takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to signal to the brain that it has had enough. Note that alcohol and caffeine make it harder to recognize subtle hints of fullness. Exercise caution when you encounter food that is nicely presented at a deli counter, food stand or buffet. A feast for the eyes can be quite seductive and lets you forget about your limits. My advice is: LESS IS ALWAYS BETTER!

Here’s another tip: If you find your hunger level has reached a score of 10 (extreme) to the point where your body becomes shaky, do not have a big meal right away. Rather drink first a glass of fruit juice or nonfat milk. Then wait for 10 to 15 minutes. This will bring your blood sugar back up slowly and help you make better food choices and also to eat your meal more slowly.

Dear Reader – July 2009

Timi Gustafson, R.D. I love “Mediterranean” food. Of course, strictly speaking, there is no such thing. There are no Mediterranean restaurants the way you can find Chinese, Thai or Italian eateries. Eating Mediterranean-style is rather a “lifestyle” than a specific diet. As the name suggests, Mediterranean cooking is rooted in the culinary traditions of countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, such as Southern France, Spain, Italy, Greece, parts of Turkey and North Africa.

What’s more important; however, is the role that cooking and eating play in everyday life. “Mediterraneans” don’t just eat, they celebrate eating. Most social interactions involve food. Families, friends and neighbors gather around kitchen- and dinner tables for hours on end to reconnect with one another, to gossip and even to settle disputes.

Food is about life and life is about food, so it seems. Talented restaurant chefs are worshiped like rock stars. Family recipes are guarded like top-secret documents and revealed only to the next of kin. Most families grow some of their food around the house or in a garden nearby.

By contrast, here in the United States we are generally not in touch with our food the way the “Mediterraneans” are. Supermarkets, fast food chains and food marts provide us with ready-to-eat meals anytime and anywhere. Our relationship to food is mostly formed by convenience and efficiency. When we eat this way, we don’t take enough time to enjoy; we rather use food to re-fuel.

And yet, more and more of us express a real “hunger” to have time for the simple pleasures in life. Just go to your local farmers market and see people linger, touch, smell and taste fresh fruits and vegetables grown on a small farm nearby. It makes me hopeful to think that we too can become more “Mediterranean” over time.  Go to Newsletter of July 2009…