Weight Loss Enemy Foods to Avoid: Forever on Your Hips Once Past the Lips

 

A new study from Harvard researchers provides scientific evidence that you are what you eat. In the quest for weight loss, the quality of foods consumed is much more significant than calorie content. Munching chips and sipping soda in front of the TV helps to pack on the pounds, giving real meaning to the term “couch potato.” The full details of the study can be found in the New England Journal of Medicine.

   Although it has long been known that a healthy diet includes fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, nuts and lean proteins, the Harvard research team has successfully determined the pound-packing impact of ingesting culprit foods. At the top of the list of fatty offenders are those tasty potato chips, which lead to more weight gain per serving that any other food in the study, while the best power food for weight loss is yogurt.

Making healthy food choices that work with your body will have a greater positive impact overall than will simply eating less. Consuming high-quality foods will also lead to the most successful weight loss long term, as adults gain about one pound per year, on average. Of course, when focusing on weight loss, the daily overall calorie count must be considered because moderation remains key in the weight loss process.

According to lead study author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, “For diet, conventional wisdom often recommends ‘everything in moderation,’ with a focus only on total calories consumed.” He then pointed out, “Our results demonstrate that the quality of the diet — the types of food and beverages that one consumes — is strongly linked to weight gain.”

The study revealed that every extra serving of potato chips consumed within a day, results in a weight-gain of 1.69 pounds every four years. In addition, potatoes in general are foods that fatten whether French fried, mashed, boiled or even baked.

The study found that for each extra serving consumed, an average of 1.28 pounds were gained over a four-year period, while French fries alone were associated with over three pounds of added weight.

Also among the top five offenders were  sugar-sweetened beverages, unprocessed and processed red meat, with all being linked to about one pound of additional weight every four years.

Daily Diet: Increase in Incidence of Celiac Disease

Apparently you are never too old to be diagnosed with celiac disease, and new findings challenge the notion that it is something that you develop in childhood. A study published in the latest issue of the Annals of Medicine has found not only an increased incidence of the disease, but that the incidence (or risk) of celiac disease rises with age.

Researchers found that the incidence of celiac disease has doubled in the United States every 15 years since 1974. The number of individuals with celiac disease blood markers rose from 1 in 501 in 1974 to 1 in 219 in 1989, and then to 1 in every 133 people in 2003. Results also confirmed previous research that elderly people are twice as likely to develop the disease compared to the general population.

Celiac disease is an inherited digestive system disorder caused by an intolerance to gluten that affects the digestive process of the small intestine. Once thought to be a rare condition, research shows that it affects about 3 million people. The disease often goes undiagnosed because there are as many as 300 different symptoms, many of them subtle and seemingly unrelated. In fact, it is sometimes confused with irritable bowel syndrome, iron-deficiency anemia, Crohn’s disease, diverticulitis, intestinal infections, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

When a person who has celiac disease eats foods containing gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, their immune system responds by attacking the small intestine, destroying the intestinal villi, thus inhibiting the absorption of vital nutrients into the body. Left untreated, the disease may increase the risk of many other conditions, including hepatitis, thyroiditis, lymphoma, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Although genetic markers for celiac disease have been identified, the actual trigger that causes an individual to lose gluten tolerance is unknown. Study leader Alessio Fasano, M.D., director of the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research, said, “Even if you have these genetic markers, it's not your destiny to develop an autoimmune disease. Our study shows that environmental factors cause an individual's immune system to lose tolerance to gluten, given the fact that genetics was not a factor in our study since we followed the same individuals over time.”

The only treatment for celiac disease is a gluten-free diet. But despite the fact that manufacturers are required to label food that contains gluten, adhering to a gluten-free diet can be tricky business. In addition to the obvious places gluten can be found in a normal diet, such as breads, cereals and pasta, there are many hidden sources of gluten. Everyday products such as medicines, vitamins and even lip balms contain gluten, as does thickening agents, emulsifiers, fillers, flavor enhancers, and food stabilizers.

How to Gain Weight Eating Healthy Foods

It may feel pretty lonely out there when everyone you know is trying to shed pounds and you are trying to put some on. However, your goals are exactly the same as those trying to lose some weight: To eat a healthy diet, and reach a normal body weight. It’s just as much of a challenge for the overweight person to lose pounds, as it is for you to gain them.

The good news is that it’s possible for all of you to sit at the same table, with the same menu, enjoy each other’s company, and reach your goals. You will be choosing a few things that they may be avoiding, but generally, eating healthy to gain weight involves eating the same variety of foods as your friends.

Whether you are underweight because of a recent illness, an eating disorder, or simply because your sense of taste declined as you grew older, the way to increase your weight is to increase the calories in your diet. To do this in a healthy way, you will not want to just add more junk foods to your diet. Junk foods don’t offer much nutritionally, and are loaded with unhealthy saturated fats and sugar.

Eating fish, nuts, and even seeds, routinely throughout the week will provide you with needed healthy fat and calories. Because red meat has a high saturated fat content, meals of this type would best be limited to one or two times a week.

Black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, dried peas, and soy beans are all good sources of protein and calories. A delightful snack is easy to make by placing beans and cheese on a tortilla; roll it up, and microwave until it’s hot, enjoy.

Powdered milk added to soups, sauces, and smoothies, is a relatively effortless way to get bonus calories and protein.

Olive oil is a healthy diet choice because this monounsaturated fat will add calories to your diet, and help keep your cardiovascular system in good shape. For healthy salad dressings and mayonnaise, choose those made with canola or safflower oil.

The carbohydrates found in vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, infuse energy and nutrients into your daily diet. The USDA recommends that our daily diet include lots of grains and cereals; and that at least three servings a day are from whole gain breads, cereals, or and pastas. Whole grain carbohydrates provide calories, fiber, nutrients, and some protein in a healthy diet.