Eating Patterns in the U.S. Remain Largely Unchanged
Despite of More Information and New Policies

Fewer Americans reported eating healthily by including fruits and vegetables on a weekly basis last year than the year before. Produce consumption is down especially among young adults, seniors, women and Hispanics, according to the Gallup poll.

“The trend has been toward eating more meals at home. It’s just that we’ve been getting more and more of those meals we’ve been eating at restaurants to eat at home,” said Harry Balzer, a vice president at The NPD Group, a consumer market research firm. “Frozen and pre-prepared foods have gotten more popular. [People] want to spend as little time as possible preparing meals and that’s the driving force in the way we’re eating right now,” he added.

The results of the Gallup survey have been largely confirmed by another recent study, this one conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS), titled “How Much Time Do Americans Spend on Food?” While many of the ERS’s findings came as no surprise – Americans like to eat quickly, tend to skip breakfast, take shorter lunch breaks, don’t spend much time on preparing and enjoying elaborate meals, make spontaneous food shopping choices, etc. – what stands out is the growing dominance of what the study calls “secondary eating patterns,” that is eating and drinking while simultaneously doing other things. Just focusing on your meals and enjoying them is becoming a thing of the past, especially among the younger generations, according to the report.

“On an average day [in 2006 to 2008 – the time period the survey took place], Americans age 15 and older spent about 2.5 hours daily eating or drinking. Slightly less than half of that time was spent eating and drinking as a primary or main activity, while the remaining time was spent eating and drinking while doing something else such as watching television, driving or working and waiting to eat or traveling to meal destinations,” said the report.

The ERS study also found that Americans who adhered predominantly to “secondary eating patterns” had on average a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) than those who kept mostly to “primary eating patterns” by setting time aside for their meals.

In his landmark book, “Mindless Eating,” Dr. Brian Wansink, a professor for marketing and nutritional science at Cornell University, pointed out that the average American makes well over 200 decisions about food every day, although when asked, most people initially believe they make only about 15 food-related decisions daily. Many of these decisions are made more or less unconsciously and even inexplicably. The reason is that we are often too distracted to pay attention to our eating. “If we knew why we ate the way we do, we could eat a little less, eat a little healthier, and enjoy it a lot more,” said Dr. Wansink.

Needless to say that this would not be an easy exercise. In a world where we all are constantly surrounded by a thousand things competing for our attention, it is hard to shut everything down and focus only on what we eat, when we eat, where we eat, how much we eat and how fast we eat. Yet, these are the quintessential elements of healthful eating habits.

As a dietitian and health counselor I’m often asked by my clients what changes they should make in their way of eating. There are many possibilities, of course, but much comes down to paying closer attention to your actions.

For instance, you can start by making grocery shopping lists and sticking to them once you’re at the store. Don’t buy food items spontaneously. For this reason, you should not go food shopping when you’re hungry.

Lay out a meal plan for a few days or an entire week if you have enough storage space. Prepare your meals as much as possible from scratch using fresh ingredients and lean cooking techniques. If you don’t have enough time to cook every day, prepare what you can in advance over the weekend or whenever you have the time.

Eat only in your dining room or whichever part of your home is set up for eating. Before you sit down, make sure to switch off your television, cellphone, computer, everything that can interfere with the enjoyment of your meal.

If possible, try to keep conversations light. Sharing a meal with loved ones should be a pleasurable experience. If the atmosphere around the dinner table is tense and stressful, it will affect everyone’s nutritional benefits as well.

Use food to celebrate. Although Thanksgiving is only once a year, there are plenty more opportunities to be grateful throughout the year. Having good food available itself is a cause for gratitude, being able to share it with others even more so.

There is little chance that we Americans will ever become quite like the French, the Greeks or the Italians, sitting down for hours on end over multi-course meals and wine in midday. And there is no reason why we should adopt other people’s lifestyles. But we should make ours as healthful as we can. And there we have plenty of room for improvement.

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The study, which was designed to identify risk factors for stroke and coronary disease, concluded that people who followed a diet dominated by fruits, vegetables, olive oil, legumes, whole grains and fish suffered fewer brain lesions than those who had a higher calorie and fat intake, especially from meat products.

New Study Finds a Mediterranean-Style Diet
May Reduce Risk of Brain Damage

“Normally, brain lesions are associated with hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and aging,” said Dr. Clinton Wright, professor for neurology at Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida, and lead author of the study report. “We saw that there was a relationship between diet and this marker of small vessel disease. Those who adhered to a more Mediterranean diet had less small vessel damage,” he said.

For the study, researchers from the University of Miami in Florida and Columbia University in New York analyzed the eating patterns of approximately 1,000 participants. They found that those who adhered closely to a Mediterranean-style diet showed a lower risk of heart disease as well as cognitive disorders.

Heart disease is increasingly seen as a contributor to age-related memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease. When blood does not flow as well as it should to the brain, it can cause those lesions, explained Dr. Wright. Contributing factors for this to happen are high blood pressure, diabetes or smoking. Diet and lifestyle choices that help prevent these diseases in the first place are the best countermeasures we can take.

The term “Mediterranean diet” was originally inspired by the eating styles of countries bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, including Spain, southern France, Italy, Greece, Turkey and the northern African coast. As a specific diet, it was first popularized in the U.S. by Dr. Walter Willett, a widely known nutrition expert and head of Harvard University’s School of Public Health. According to Dr. Willett, an abundance of fresh plant foods, limited amounts of animal fats from meats and dairy products, and olive oil as the principal source of fat make the Mediterranean diet ideal for heart healthy eating among other benefits that are increasingly being discovered.

While the diet is enjoying growing popularity among health-conscious eaters around the world, critics have pointed out that the dietary factors themselves may only be part of the reason why the population in the Mediterranean region appears to be particularly healthy. Genetics, the environment, lifestyle habits as well as smaller portion sizes, daily exercise and social factors such as enjoying food together as family and friends may play a role as well.

The diet alone may not be as significant as how these people live their lives, according to Kathleen M. Zelman, a dietitian writing for WebMD. “For thousands of years, residents of the Mediterranean coastal region have enjoyed this delicious diet,” she said. “They don’t think of their eating habits as a diet plan, it’s simply their way of life. And it’s a way of life that apparently leads to long, healthy lives virtually free of chronic disease.”

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For us Americans, driving in our own cars wherever we go is such an integral part of our lives that we hardly ever question it. We like our independence, but it also comes with a price. Our dependency on automobiles has consequences for our environment, our finances, our health and our communities.

A Trend Away From Urban Sprawl to High Quality City Life

“Drivable suburbia” is a development pattern that started back in the 1950s and has been the dominant kind of residential planning ever since. With more and more people moving to the suburbs in search of affordable homeownership, the sprawl continued for decades. What often got lost in the process was a sense of community. Neighborhoods were reduced to bedroom communities. Residents lived side-by-side but not together. But now, slowly but surely, things are beginning to change in many parts of the country. Walkable town centers are being rediscovered and redesigned to meet the needs of a new generation of urban dwellers.

Walkability is more and more considered as an important factor for the quality of urban life. Demand for safe walkways and pedestrian zones is growing. But still changes start mostly from the bottom up. For instance, in Denver, Colorado, an architect and a cardiologist teamed up to start a non-profit group called “Walk Denver” with the goal to turn their city into a walk-friendly community. Their initial idea was to promote public health by offering more opportunities to exercise, but the potential benefits reach much further.

Denver, which is already known as one of America’s healthier cities, wants to enable 15 percent of its population to get to work on bike or on foot by 2020. City officials say they hope not only to reduce inner city traffic but also contribute to the physical health of the Denver populace by enticing it to walk more.

“When I moved from Poland to the U.S., I got my driver’s license and I gained 20 pounds,” said Gosia Kung, the architect and co-founder of the “Walk Denver” program in an interview with the New York Times (2/14/2012). She found that the simple exercise of walking in the streets the way she used to in her former home country was sufficient to lose weight and keep her healthy. Now her goal is to inspire others to follow her example, starting with young children in her latest endeavor she calls “Walking School Bus.”

“Compact, walkable communities – the opposite of poorly planned sprawl – are the solution to some of the biggest shared challenges, from childhood obesity to social isolation, from crash deaths to disappearing farmland, from the high price of gas to the architectural blight of strip development,” says Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute, a non-profit research center for sustainable urban development in Seattle. He thinks that walking is still a largely underappreciated component of the urban transportation system in this country. But there is a lot of creative inspiration right now that has the potential to change all that.

Some health experts see a direct connection between walkability of cities and the Body Mass Index (BMI) of their population. Besides weight control, greater walkability has also shown many other individual and community health benefits such as opportunities for social interaction, reduced crime rates and increased participation in volunteer programs, to name a few.

To learn more about the walkability of your own home town, you can go to a number of websites like Walkscore, Walkonomics or RateMyStreet, which give you detailed information about pedestrian-friendly areas near you.

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When a star U Conn basketball player took the advice of his sports nutritionist, Nancy Rodriguez, RD, and started drinking enough to consistently void a light-colored urine, he was amazed at how much better he felt all day. Unfortunately, too many athletes and exercise enthusiasts overlook the power of this essential nutrient.

Perhaps it’s your turn to give water a try? This article offers droplets of information to enhance your water IQ, optimize your water balance, and help you feel and perform better.

The Body Cannot Function
Without Sufficient Water Supply

You don’t have to drink plain water to get adequate water into your body. All fluids count, as do foods that have a high water content. For example, oatmeal is 84 percent water; low-fat milk is 90 percent; coffee is 99 percent; lettuce is 96 percent; tomatoes are 95 percent; broccoli is 89 percent; low-fat vanilla yogurt is 79 percent; and ice cream consists of 60 percent water.

Water is the solvent for biochemical reactions. Your body cannot function without sufficient water supply, as noted by the fact that athletes die from dehydration.

Your body needs water to moisten food (saliva), digest food (gastric secretions), transport nutrients to and from cells (blood), discard waste (urine), and dissipate heat (sweat). Water is a major component of the cells in muscles and organs. About 60 percent of a young male’s body weight is water, as is about 50 percent of a young woman’s body weight.

Different body parts have different water contents. For example, blood is approximately 93 percent water, muscle is about 73 percent water, and body fat is about 10 percent water. Water constantly moves between the inside and the outside of cells. About 4 to 10 percent of the water in your body gets replaced every day.

Note: Bioelectrical impedance (BIA) methods of measuring body fat actually measure body water. From that, a formula estimates the ratio of water to muscle and fat. Hence, if you use a Tanita Scale or Omron device, be sure to maintain adequate hydration. If you are dehydrated, you’ll end up with an inaccurate (higher) estimate of body fatness.

Your body produces about 8 to 16 oz. (250-500 ml) water per day during normal metabolic processes. During a marathon, a runner’s muscles can produce that much water over 2 to 3 hours. When muscles burn glycogen, they simultaneously release about 2.5 units water for each one unit of muscle glycogen, which helps protect against dehydration.

Coffee is a popular source of water. Although once thought to have a diuretic effect, current research indicates that coffee (in amounts normally consumed) hydrates as well as water over a 24-hour period. That is, after drinking coffee, you may urinate sooner, but you will not urinate more than you consume. Army research on caffeine and dehydration confirms coffee is an acceptable source of fluids for athletes, even during exercise in the heat. Hence, coffee and other caffeinated beverages such as tea or cola count towards your water intake.

An increased concentration of particles in your blood triggers the sensation of thirst. If you are a 150-pound athlete, you’ll start to feel thirsty once you’ve lost about 1.5 to 3 pounds of sweat (1 to 2 percent of your body weight). You are seriously dehydrated when you have lost 5 percent of your body weight.

Body water absorbs heat from the working muscles and sweat dissipates the heat. That is, the evaporation of a liter (about 36 ounces) of sweat from the skin represents loss of about 580 calories. Sweat keeps you from overheating during exercise and in hot environments.

To determine how much water you lose when you sweat, weigh yourself (with little or no clothing) before and after an hour of hard exercise with no fluid intake. The change in body weight reflects sweat loss. A 1-pound drop in weight equates to a loss of 16 ounces of sweat. A 2-pound drop equates to 32 ounces, that’s one quart. Drink accordingly during your workouts to prevent that loss.

When you sweat, you lose water from both inside and outside the cells. The water outside the cells is rich in sodium, an electrolyte that works in balance with potassium, an electrolyte inside the cells. Sweat contains about 7 times more sodium than potassium, hence sodium is the more important electrolyte to replace during extended exercise.

Most athletes who lose more than 2 percent of their body weight (3 pounds for a 150-pound athlete) lose both their mental edge and their ability to perform optimally in hot weather. Yet, during cold weather, you are less likely to experience reduced performance, even at 3 percent dehydration. 3 to 5 percent dehydration does not seem to affect muscle strength or performance during short intense bouts of anaerobic exercise such as weight lifting. But distance runners slow their pace by ~2 percent for each percent body weight lost by dehydration. Sweat loss of more than 10 percent body weight is life-threatening.

Adequate fluid intake can reduce problems with constipation and urinary tract infections. There is no scientific validation of theories that excessive water intake will improve weight loss, remove toxins, or improve skin tone.

Should you plan to drink eight glasses of water a day? No scientific evidence supports that rule, so you can simply drink in response to thirst. You can also monitor the volume of your urine. If your urine is scanty, dark and smelly, you should drink more. If you have not urinated during your work or school day (8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.), you are severely under-hydrated.

Is bottled water better for you than tap water? Doubtful. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, nearly half of bottled waters come from municipal water supplies, not from the mountain streams pictured on the labels. This suggests standard municipal tap water is high quality. Rather than spending money on bottled water, turn on your tap. This will help stop the flood of 95 million plastic water bottles that get discarded each day, of which only 20 percent get recycled. Drink plenty of water, but also think “green.”

Nancy Clark, MS, RD, CSSD (Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) counsels both casual and competitive athletes at her office in Newton, MA (617-795-1875). Her “Sports Nutrition Guidebook” and food guides for new runners, marathoners and soccer players offer additional information. They are available at www.nancyclarkrd.com and www.sportsnutritionworkshop.com.

Resources:

Armstrong, L., A. Pumerantz, M. Roti, et al. 2005. Fluid, electrolyte, and renal indices of hydration during 11 days of controlled caffeine consumption. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab 15:252-265

Koslo, J. “Water, hyrdration and health: What dietetics practitioners need to know,” in SCAN’s Pulse, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 2012 31:1 (Winter)

National Academy of Sciences. Institute of Medicine. Food and Nutrition Board.
Dietary Reference Intakes for Water. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/DRI//DRI_Water/73-185.pdf

Wilmore, J and D. Costill. Physiology of Sport and Exercise, Human Kinetics, 1994.

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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It’s a frightening statistic. Heart disease is the number one killer of American women and men today. In case that doesn’t scare you, here are a few more stats:

Heart disease causes approximately 25 percent of all deaths in the U.S. Every year about 785,000 Americans have a first heart attack. Another 470,000 who have already had one or more heart attacks have another. Heart disease treatments alone cost $108.9 billion in 2010.

Heart-Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Choices
Don’t Have to Be Complicated

I hope this gets your attention. There’s also some good news: How you choose to live your life can help you prevent getting heart disease. At “Appetite for Health,” we are all about prevention and solutions. It’s February, a.k.a. “American Heart Health Month.” And there’s no better time to make sure your heart is in tip-top shape.

For the first time, the American Heart Association (AHA) has defined what it means to have ideal cardiovascular health, identifying seven health and behavior factors that impact your health and quality of life. Known as “Life’s Simple 7,” these steps can help add years to your life:

1. Don’t smoke
2. Maintain a healthy weight
3. Engage in regular physical activity
4. Eat a healthy diet
5. Manage your blood pressure
6. Take charge of cholesterol
7. Keep blood sugar at healthy levels

When it comes to the “healthy diet” part, follow the AHA’s heart healthy eating guidelines.

AHA’s heart health eating guidelines:

• Fruits and vegetables: At least 4.5 cups a day
• Fish (preferably oily fish): At least two 3.5-ounce servings a week
• Fiber-rich whole grains: At least three 1-ounce-equivalent servings a day
• Sodium: Less than 1,500 mg a day
• Sugar-sweetened beverages: No more than 450 calories (36 ounces) a week

Other dietary measures are:

• Nuts, legumes and seeds: At least 4 servings a week
• Processed meats: No more than 2 servings a week
• Saturated fat: Less than 7% of total energy intake

For more info visit: www.americanheart.org

Remember, even simple, small changes can make a big difference in living a better life.

Some of our favorite heart-healthy grocery picks include: Leafy green veggies, salmon, brown rice, oats/oatmeal, 100% grape juice made with Concord grapes, soy milk, pears, strawberries, pistachios.

Katherine Brooking, MS, RD is a registered dietitian, expert contributor to numerous television programs and writer. She has appeared on The TODAY Show, Live with Regis & Kelly, The Early Show on CBS, Good Morning America Health and many others. She covers health and wellness topics in SELF Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times and New York Daily News. For more information go to www.AppForHealth.com

The articles written by guest contributors are the sole responsibility of the individual writers in terms of factual accuracy and opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher of this blog.

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Consistently maintaining healthy eating habits is not nearly as difficult as it sounds. Yes, there are temptations everywhere that can make you fall off the proverbial wagon. When you eat out or travel, it can be especially hard to stick to your ideal diet. As a dietitian and health counselor who also travels extensively, I had to develop my own strategies to always eat healthy and stay fit and do as I preach to others. I don’t deny the difficulties, but it gets easier over time, especially when you have a plan.

Designing a Health-Conscious Life

As soon as people find out what I do for a living, they ask me without fail the same question: “What should I eat?” Everybody seems so confused these days about nutrition, dieting, fitness, food safety, food politics and so on and so on. The reasons for this are obvious. We are constantly bombarded with news about nutrition studies, breakthrough diets, food contaminations, product recalls and ever-changing dietary guidelines – the stream of often conflicting and contradictory messages never ends.

Still, maintaining a healthy lifestyle should not have to be so complicated. Yes, it can be hard to restrict one’s diet to fresh organically grown produce and other high-quality food products, especially when you want to stay within a reasonable budget. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up on feeding yourself and your loved ones in a health-conscious way. In this new series, I will talk a lot about smart grocery shopping strategies that give you the biggest bang for your buck without having to resort to less than desirable food choices.

Home cooking will be another issue of great interest. Don’t expect a cookbook or recipe collection in this part of the blog  – you can find these under the postings called “Eating Lighter – Eating Smarter” and “Recipe Modifications.” Here, I want to talk about the importance of making tasty and healthful meals from scratch. It is a sad fact that home cooking is rapidly going out of fashion, especially among young professionals who are constantly pressed for time and whose diet consists of little else than restaurant food and take-outs.

As I mentioned before, I also travels extensively, both for business and pleasure. That is the time when even my eating habits face considerable challenges. It took me quite some time to develop workable strategies to always eat healthy and stay fit and do as I preach when I’m on the road or in the air. If you are interested in travel- and health tips, you may find some of my reports in the Travel & Health section quite helpful. Of course, I’m always keen to hear about your experiences too.

Having sounded off enough warnings about restaurant food, I also must confess that I love dining out once in a while. Whether it’s pizza, Chinese or French gourmet, it all has its place, as long as it’s done in moderation. I have written numerous restaurant guides in my professional life and there is a good selection in the “Dining Out” section of this blog. But I’m not a food critic. Instead of handing out “stars” for taste, service and ambiance, I put up warning signs where you should tread carefully and give my thumbs up where the territory is safe – I’m strictly speaking from a dietitian’s perspective, of course.

There cannot be any meaningful conversation about healthy living without involving the utmost importance of a regular exercise and fitness routine. But I’m no Jane Fonda. You’re not going to see me jump up and down in leotards and calf warmers (so nineteen-eighties), just to show you that I mean it when I say that you must move your body to stay healthy.

Last but not least, I will talk more about stress management and sleep hygiene as essential components of a healthy lifestyle. Both topics also relate closely to the improvement of one’s eating habits. Many people can’t get their weight under control because food can be such a great comfort when they’re anxious or exhausted.

The way I would like you to read the “Eat Like a Dietitian” section is not so much as a blueprint for health-conscious living and the likes, but rather as a personal diary of someone who struggles as much as you do with making the right choices – but who also has some good insights how to do better.

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