Adults, on the other hand, tend to choose portion sizes based on how satisfying they believe the food will be. Because they’re more familiar with so many more foods, predicting how satisfying a food amount will be (calories aside) can be pretty accurate for most adults. Researchers in the United Kingdom wondered how well children could predict how satisfying a food would be when it was a familiar food versus a more unfamiliar food (Am J Clin Nutr 2011; 94:1196-201).

The 70 participants in their study were 11 and 12 year old children enrolled in local schools who were willing to participate and whose parents consented to their participation. Kids need snack guidance

Researchers have been divided on just why meal replacements work, however. Ordinarily reducing the number of calories at one meal results in increased consumption at the meals following, resulting in about the same number of calories consumed over the course of the day. Yet this wasn’t the case with high protein meal replacements: dieters would eat the meal replacement and would not compensate for the reduction in calories by eating more at subsequent meals. They would then lose weight.

Then other researchers noted that having a bowl of high-fiber cereal would yield the same results: a standard size bowl of cereal in place of a single meal again resulted in lost weight (think of those “Special K Challenge” ads).

Researchers at Cornell University theorized that it was simply the smaller portion size of these meal replacement drinks, bars and the like that was resulting in weight loss. Lose Weight with Portion Control

Researchers in England took another approach towards researching how much people eat at meal times. Their theory was that how much people eat at a meal is largely determined before someone sits down to eat. Plan to Clean Your Plate

Obviously, the whole point of food commercials is to get you to buy the product. Researchers in The Netherlands wondered if watching food commercials would actually affect how much you ate while you were watching television. Snack Food Commercials

This week’s death of Blair River, the 575 pound spokesperson for the Heart Attack Grill is disturbing to be sure. First and foremost because this young man was only 29 years old. This means that he lived a scant 11 years as an adult and this kind of story always makes my heart ache.

There was a tremendous amount of press surrounding Mr. River’s death because of his role as a morbidly obese man pitching a restaurant that profiteers from today’s tremendous problem with weight gain in America. Founded by Jon Basso, who uses the moniker “Dr. Jon,” the restaurant serves burgers and fries with no limit on the calories, fat or salt. In Memoriam

Featured Recipe

Creamy Crab and Asparagus Fettuccine

This is a light pasta dish with the flavor of the crab enhanced by both the slight creaminess and the flavors of the lemon and oregano.

I am fortunate enough to live on the Gulf Coast and there’s great quality crab here. I purchase mine at the farmer’s market here in New Orleans. You can find great quality crabmeat even if you don’t live on the coast – ask at the fish counter of your local store.

In devising a research strategy, they also noted that other research suggests that people believe that participating in positive (healthy) behaviors can serve to offset the effects of negative (unhealthy) behaviors later. (Makes sense: how often have you thought something to the effect of, “I’ll take this long walk so I can have ice cream later.”)

Even further, Wansink and his colleagues theorized that just thinking about exercise – not actually doing any – could affect how much food a person served themselves afterwards. Just Thinking About Exercise

He and his staff recruited 37 undergraduate men and women who were told that they would watch a television comedy and then answer questions about it. While they watched the show, they were given prepackaged crackers to eat as snacks. These crackers were prepackaged in one of two ways: in one large bag or in four smaller bags. Those 100-Calorie Snack Packs

The problem (once again) is the added salt. Daily Grill

It’s kinda cool getting the packages: it’s a bit like Christmas. Not only are the arrivals sometimes unexpected, one is not always sure what’s inside. One of the most recent arrivals was Flavor Magic Portion Control Sheets. These came with more promotional information than almost any product we’ve received. They are described by the manufacturer as “innovative sheets” that “teach consumers how to practice sensible protein portion control.” Flavor Magic

While it’s easy to know which is which when you’re following a structured plan like The Real World Diet, most people don’t consciously plan their meals. When you buy a 400-calorie package of cookies from the vending machine or eat a plate of finger foods at a company cocktail party, do you consider those “snacks” or “meals”? You might eat more later if you’ve mentally tagged that food a “snack.” Is It a Meal, or Is It a Snack?

Recently a brief article in The Annals of Internal Medicine featured The Joy of Cooking. Brian Wansink, a food researcher at Cornell University, and his staff surveyed the seven editions of The Joy of Cooking and found that only 18 recipes have appeared in all seven editions (disappointingly, the letter does not list which ones they are). Right Size Your Recipes

Why am I not always more direct in helping them set goals? Because folks can often be pretty unrealistic about their health and their weight. Usually people are shocked when I tell them what an ideal weight would be for them.

There are a few ways to look at what your best weight should be, but Body Mass Index (BMI) is one of the most reliable to help you know what a healthy weight is for you.

BMI is based on a calculation that estimates weight in relation to height. There are more precise measures of weight, but BMI allows researchers a quick and inexpensive way to compare the weight of different populations. Because this has been the research standard you can easily compare yourself to the findings of researchers on what is considered a healthy weight.

It’s pretty clear that being overweight can have serious effects on your health. There are well established connections between obesity and many illnesses, with heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, breast cancer, colon cancer, arthritis and stroke being the most common problems.

While you have probably heard all of this before, I like to talk with my patients about the real consequences for them of these conditions. If your weight leads to having diabetes or a heart attack will you be able to dance at your son’s wedding? Will you live to see your daughter’s first child graduate from high school? There’s real pain in carrying around too much weight – arthritis of the knees, difficulty breathing, swelling of the ankles, diabetic foot problems – these are the facts of life for most with a BMI in the obese range.

BMI is a rough estimate of body fat. When I say “rough estimate” I mean both – an estimate and a rough one at best. The limitation is that it doesn’t measure body fat directly, so BMI can be misleading for those who have an especially high ratio of lean muscle mass to their overall weight. For the vast majority of us, however, Body Mass Index is a good indication of whether your weight is in a normal range for your height.

This table shows the range of weights for a normal Body Mass Index. Your Ideal Body Weight should fall between the weights for a BMI of 19 to 25.

For instance, if you are 63 inches tall (5 foot 3 inches) a good range for a healthy weight is between 107 lbs. and 141 lbs.

If your BMI is not in the normal range you can use the BMI table below along with the BMI calculator on this site to see if you fall in the Overweight, Obese or Severely Obese ranges.

Now, for some of you this is going to be shocking information. It is amazing to me how disconnected people are today from what a healthy weight should be. While BMI information is not perfect, it is a pretty good guide, especially for the majority of the population.

Don’t worry, you can get to a healthy weight if you are overweight or obese. It does take some planning and work at taking action, but as you read through these articles, each day you’ll learn a little more about how to make that happen.

Lunchtime is one of the places where people get way too many calories. It amazes me how many people don’t make their lunch to take to work with them, since it is so expensive to eat out these days.

Being very conservative, if you eat lunch out every day and it costs $5.00, that’s $25.00 per week or about $100.00 each month. $1,200.00 per year. (That’s a trip to Cancun!)

Save your money and save your life! Start making your lunch each day and taking it with you. It takes all of 10 minutes to make a sandwich and put it in a bag with a piece of fruit. This is a critical part of this program. By making your lunch, you not only save money but you are in complete control of the amount of calories you’ll have each day at lunch.

Contributing to the problem is that serving sizes have become so large in many restaurants. This has carried over into folk’s dinner tables at home, and so portions at home have gone from big to bigger to huge. So when you’re considering dinner ideas, think in terms of right-sizing your meal.

Begin with the main course. By that I mean the fish, lean meat, shellfish, chicken, turkey, lamb, etc. that you will have. The rule of thumb for a single serving for an adult is 4 ounces by weight. When you are reading recipes, keep this in mind, because many call for single serving sizes of double or even triple this amount. With a 4 ounce serving coming in at around 150 to 200 calories, it’s easy to see how in today’s world folks can easily get too many calories.

For this reason I’m a believer in weighing ingredients, especially when you are starting out at eating healthier. Knowing just what that 4 ounces looks like is important and by weighing your food you’ll learn exactly what a portion should look like.

Once you’ve decided what you’re having for the main course it’s time to think about the carbs. This is where it’s best to think about that Blue Plate Special as a meat, a starch and a veg. There are lots of choices here and a serving generally works out to somewhere between 150 and 250 calories. Keep in mind that making the higher fiber choice will be the best quality calories.

Adding up what we have so far gets us to somewhere between 300 and 450 calories for the meal. That can be a bit of a wide mark, but for the most part it’ll balance out day in and day out.

So that leaves the veggies. Quite simply, eat what you want. Veggies can be a bit all over the map, with some being as little as 25 calories in 4 ounces up to as much as 100 calories. Altogether, this will add up to between 325 and 550 calories for the whole meal (from the lowest combination to the highest).

Note that this doesn’t always have to be a meat, starch and a veggie on your plate like you might get at the diner. Take a dinner meal of Lentil Chili with a side salad, as a good example. There’s plenty of veggies in the chili and the lentils provide mostly starch but some protein. The rest of the protein comes from the cheese and there’s even more veggies in the side salad.

Added up, the rule of thumb for a complete dinner meal should be about 500 calories. Some meals will be more and others less. When I’m working on creating recipes I work to make them satisfying. Part of this is finding the right balance in a particular meal – protein, high quality carbs and fresh veggies. Eating great food is the key to your success, after all.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/ProductAlert/Prescriptions/17147

And these are the drugs that get researched.  There are thousands of “supplement” preparations on the market that are not subject to such scrutiny as a good randomized controlled trial.

The Kardashian sisters have been in the news lately because of their weight loss using a product that they’ve been paid to promote called “Quick Trim.”  This is pretty shameful because these two young women have no idea what risk they might be putting themselves for future health issues but they are telling others to follow their lead.

We know that diet pills don’t work and we have abundant evidence of how harmful they can be.

Dr. Gourmet

Eat well, eat healthy, enjoy life!

Chef Tim Says….

One of the main things that I have noticed over and over is portion size. It’s just plain smaller in Spain vs. the U.S. (or the U.K. for that matter). For instance, the croissants are about 2/3 the size of those found in America. Other pastries are similarly compact.

At lunch, sandwiches are smaller too. I have been recommending for years that folks limit the amount of meat or cheese in their sandwiches to about 1 or 2 ounces. That’s standard in Spain and more often it’s only about a single ounce. As I have mentioned before, the quality of the ham, cheese and sausage is so much richer that only a little is needed to make a delicious sandwich. Spain: Portion Size

Featured Recipe

Curried Pork Tenderloin

It doesn’t get any simpler than this recipe and if you are a curry lover it doesn’t get any better. The glaze is sweet, spicy and savory all in one. The pork is savory and the best part is that this takes only a few minutes. Even better: there’s almost nothing to clean up.

This recipe is safe for Coumadin (warfarin) users. It is low in sodium, lactose-free, and gluten-free, provided the ingredients used to make it are gluten-free. Those who have GERD / Acid Reflux will likely find this recipe too spicy.

Pork Tenderloin

Dollar for dollar this is one of the best cuts of meat going. Pork tenderloin is lean and flavorful. You can roast it, braise it, grill it, or cut it into medallions for small filets – almost anything. In most grocery stores they are sold in 2 packs, with each tenderloin in the pack being about a pound. Ask the butcher if you want only one.

There will be a variable amount of fat and I trim this carefully. Most important is the silverskin. This is a thin layer of fascia at the head of the tenderloin on one side. It has to be trimmed because it is tough and fibrous.

Lay the tenderloin on the cutting board with the silverskin side up. Press gently on the top to flatten the meat. Slip the point of your filet knife under the fascia and cut toward the end of the tenderloin. Keep the pressure slightly upward and the silverskin will easily cut away from the meat.

Eat well, eat healthy, enjoy life!

Timothy S. Harlan, M.D.
Dr. Gourmet
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Dr. Tim Says….

Almost every day I have patients ask me what they should weigh and how much they need to lose. I will admit that sometimes I am a bit evasive, saying such things as “Start working on your weight and I’ll tell you when to stop.”

Why am I not always more direct? Because folks can often be pretty unrealistic about their health and their weight. Usually people are shocked when I tell them what an ideal weight would be for them. While shock is their first reaction, folks usually say something like “Oh, I’ll do that, it’s easy for me to lose 50 pounds and you’ll see when I come back in three months.”

Man oh man, do I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said that (and another dollar for those who return in three months and have not lost any weight at all). I have no doubt that this mentality comes from fad diet books and pills that repeatedly advertise about how people can easily lose that much weight in such a short period. Realistic Goals

Featured Recipe

Scallop and Penne Salad | Low Sodium Version

Roasted criminis are an easy and inexpensive way to add maximum flavor to a dish. Sauteeing them like this until they are well caramelized is the key. The combination of the umami flavor in the mushrooms, the sweetness of the scallops and the richness of the olives combines well with the pasta for a great salad.

This recipe is Coumadin® (warfarin) safe, safe for those with GERD / Acid Reflux, and is gluten and lactose free.

Portion Size

Eating healthy is as much about the amount of food you eat as any other issue.

A serving size of pasta is two ounces (the amount in the Nutrition Facts on a box or bag of pasta). Since the standard box of pasta is one pound, there are eight servings in a box with each serving having about 200 calories.

There is usually not much fat in pasta, about a gram or so per serving. Most pasta is simply flour and water.

Eat well, eat healthy, enjoy life!

Timothy S. Harlan, M.D.
Dr. Gourmet