Seattle is Well Blog

For Rent??

January is right around the corner, and with it comes our never ending desire to lose weight.  New Year’s resolutions feed right into the business of thin.  Its strategy is to keep us fearful and confused.   The “Queen” of commercialized thin is Weight Watchers, the “mother” of all weight loss services.  If we succumb to her siren call, we will buy and eat highly processed food that makes us fat, and scramble for weight loss services to make us –only temporarily- thin.  Processed foods, limited exercise, and mindless eating keeps us enslaved.  Is there something better in life than losing and gaining the same forty pounds twenty times?  There is!  Lifelong weight maintenance is possible through adopting a personal practice of weekly weighing, gentle calorie counting, and a whole foods based diet with self-monitoring guided by mindfulness.

The “collateral damage” related to the business of thin has resulted in food and body preoccupation, self-hatred, eating disorders, discrimination and poor health.  Few of us are at peace with our bodies.  We’re no closer to solving the obesity crisis in this country since it has multi-factorial causes and conditions.  If we focus on “going on a diet”, we shortcut the dialog needed to permanently change our disordered eating culture.

Learning the truth about food marketing helps us understand that Weight Watchers – formerly a food company subsidiary of HJ Heinz – is only interested in our money, not our well-being.  Weight Watchers knows that few Americans can resist the seduction of fat, salt, and sugar –the key ingredients in their food products.  Food marketers can only survive by getting us to eat more food; how can a commercial weight loss organization that acts like a food company help us?  Here’s the truth about the business of thin:

Diets don’t work.  Research has consistently shown that “dieting” simply does not work.  97% of ALL dieters regain most, if not more, weight following a diet, only to get onto the roller coaster again.  Even a recent study commissioned by Weight Watchers and delivered in the UK showed only modest short term results.  You have to pay a lot to get this modest result.  Is it worth it?

Weight Watchers acts like a food company. Weight Watchers is at its heart and soul a food company.  Using marketing techniques developed by food marketing insiders, Weight Watchers meeting rooms are filled with branded junk food products:  snack bars, chips, and candy.  As members develop a dependence on expensive, highly processed, and unhealthy food products, meeting room conversation encourages members to eat their favorite junk foods.  Limited are discussions about healthful eating. The proprietary “points system” claims that calories don’t matter-you can eat whatever you want.  Dependence and fear is good for business!

In 2010, consumers spent over $4 billion on Weight Watchers branded products and services: meetings, products, Internet subscriptions, licensed products sold in retail channels and magazines.  While meeting fees have been flat over the past five years, big gains came as revenues from  internet sales, and licensing fees from big food manufacturers selling Weight Watchers products (Smart Ones, HJ Heinz) and products under agreement to include Points values (Boca Burgers, Green Giant, Jolly Time, and Progresso) increased.  According to Weight Watchers, licensing revenues grew at a compound annual growth rate of 5.3% from fiscal 2006 through fiscal 2010.   From a food company perspective, 5.3% growth is huge; its generation includes no overhead, staff costs, or other fixed expenses.

The question remains:  Do buying food products lead to weight loss success?

The Weight Watchers meeting sells fear. The focus is on processed and packaged foods as “healthy” alternatives.   The meeting leader, a former overweight member, communicates the way to permanent weight control is through weekly paid meeting attendance, adopting the complex strategy of counting “points”, and buying Weight Watchers packaged products.

The tradition of Weight Watchers lies in the meeting experience. Then why is Weight Watchers moving away from the group support system?  Company insiders disclose that meeting locations are being closed as Weight Watchers crafts agreements to open mini retail stores within supermarkets.  I’m pretty sure they won’t be located next to the produce department!

Freedom comes from finding the way to lifelong weight loss/maintenance.  How do I know?  I myself am a former Weight Watchers corporate insider, meeting leader, and a lifetime member who lost 40 pounds in 1987.  How have I kept if off?  Through daily exercise, a whole foods, mostly plant based diet, and weekly self-monitoring of my weight.  And the best part – no fees paid to anyone for my successful maintenance!

This approach pairing kindness and mindfulness at its core develops lifelong success patterns towards food and eating.  Embracing acceptance based psychological models works, too.  Research shows this reduces stigma, weight bias, and helps maintenance over time.

Join me this January with my annual resolution:  to keep money in my own pocket, embrace what really works, and get off the dieting treadmill.  I promise it will change your life – as it has mine!

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, dedicated to helping men of all ages learn about their risks and how to improve the odds in favor of a cancer-free life.

According to ZERO —The Project to End Prostate Cancer, one in every six men will get prostate cancer in their lives.  The chances of getting prostate cancer are one in three if you have just one close relative with the disease; the risk is 83 percent with two relatives; with three, it is almost 100 percent.

Prostate cancer is insidious; it grows slowly, with no noticeable symptoms. That is why early detection is critical: It can definitely save your life, and give men a fighting chance. Testing can help you learn if you have prostate cancer, but you also can take preventive measures to lower your risk of getting it in the first place, such as through nutrition.

Increasing though still inconclusive evidence links the consumption of foods high in saturated fatty acids, found in dairy products and red meat, to prostate cancer.  The Harvard School of Public Health has reported that surveys of men over age 40 show those who eat the most fat (89 grams daily) have nearly twice the risk of prostate cancer as men who consumed the least fat (53 grams daily).

Not all fats should be avoided, and the “essential” unsaturated fatty acids known as omega-3 and omega-6 appear to be helpful in ensuring optimal health.  It is relatively easy with our modern diets high in processed foods to get plenty of omega-6 fatty acids, which are abundant in seeds and nuts, and the oils extracted from them. Refined vegetable oils, such as soy oil, are used in most of the snack foods, cookies, crackers and sweets in the North American diet as well as in fast food. Soybean oil alone is now so common in fast foods and processed foods that an astounding 20 percent of the calories in the American diet are estimated to come from this single source.

Optimal health comes from balancing your consumption of essential fatty acids by minimizing processed food consumption and increasing your consumption of foods high in omega-3 found in oily fish or fish oil supplements, walnuts, flax seeds and omega-3 fortified eggs. Combine balancing omega-3 and omega-6 with decreasing your intake of saturated fats from red meat and dairy products and you have a nutrition prescription for optimal health!

There is evidence that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables may reduce your risk for prostate cancer.  In one large study, men who ate at least 10 servings a week of tomato-based foods reduced their risk for the disease by 45 percent, with experts suspecting that the protective agent is lycopene, a carotenoid and antioxidant found mostly in tomatoes and tomato products. Men following this type of eating plan, known as the Southern Mediterranean diet, eat high amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables, garlic, tomatoes, red wine, olive oil and fish.

A second diet known to be associated with longevity and reduced risks for prostate cancer is the traditional Japanese diet, which is high in green tea, soy, vegetables and fish, and low in calories and fat.  Both of these diets are low in red meat. Incorporating powerful anticancer nutrients found in colorful fruits and vegetables, fresh herbs, leafy green vegetables, nuts, berries and seeds are recommendations that make sense for both good health, and great taste.

To learn more about the Japanese and Southern Mediterranean diets, go to the Bastyr Center for Natural Health website at bastyrcenter.org/content/view/1730/.

The Green Goddess Breakfast Drink
Start your day with this nutrition-packed green drink that is easy to prepare, delicious and filled with cancer-fighting fruits and vegetables. Add 1 tablespoon of Chia seeds, found at PCC and Whole Foods, to increase your omega-3 intake at breakfast. This green drink also is great later in the day as a snack.  Enjoy!

Serves 1 to 3

1 ripe banana, peeled and broken into pieces

1 medium apple, cored and cut into chunks

1 ripe pear, cored and cut into chunks

1 lemon, juiced

2 to 3 cups water (I use 2 cups)

3 to 4 lettuce or spinach leaves, rinsed

3 to 4 kale leaves, rinsed and torn

1/4-cup fresh parsley leaves

2 to 4 tablespoons fresh mint leaves

Remove the tough stems from the kale and break the kale into pieces.  Place the banana pieces, apple chunks, pear chunks, lemon juice and water into a blender.  Blend on high, stopping as needed to push the fruit down.

Then add the lettuce leaves, kale pieces, parsley, and mint leaves; blend again until very smooth.  Add more water if needed and blend until completely smooth and brilliant green.

Nutrition information: Calories (per serving) 158; Total Fat 1.1 g; Sodium 26.3 g; Potassium 626.9 mg; Total Carbohydrates 39.5 g; Protein 2.3 g; Dietary Fiber 6.4 g; Sugars 7.8 g

I just read a great article in The Best Life’s Facebook posts – which shares the authors opinion of the top five fitness mistakes we make.  This inspired me to write my own list of the top five things we do wrong when we try to get into shape.

1. The wrong type of warmup. We usually skip warmups, but I think we also do the wrong warmup.  Before you launch into your fitness routine, whatever it is, and even before you launch into your day, begin with breathing.  Take five, ten, or even better 15 minutes, and sit comfortably focusing your attention on your breath.  Notice your belly expand, notice the air coming into your nostrils.  Keep bringing the mind back to the breath – it is magic in its effects to settle the mind, prepare you for work, and keep you focused.
2. The wrong kind of strength training. Best Life thinks we skimp on strength training; I agree, but what we also do is the wrong type of strength training.  Think about fitness for life’s tasks – don’t try to win the Miss USA swimsuit competition!  Use strength techniques that challenge your body using your own body weight, and eccentric muscle contractions – - like Plank – Downward Facing Dog – vasisthasana.  These poses build strength and prepare you for life, the tasks you are involved with everyday that go better with strength.
3. Do something every day. We often begin with a blaze of glory, only to flame out quickly.  Yes, we have great intentions, but the single most significant aspect of getting into shape is consistency.  Do something every day, no matter what, which helps move you to better physical health.  If you have limited time, try rethinking how you are spending it – can you get up a bit earlier in the morning, maybe skip checking Facebook so often (uhem!), or watching less TV?  Our days are often packed with time to add activity, if we only can reorder how we spend it.
4. Love your body as it is NOW! We wait to love our bodies, hoping for the perfect abs, slimmer hips, less bulk, and miss the delicious moments of now.  Often, our revulsion of our current body spoils the benefits of exercise, and leaves us in a terrible rut.  Develop self compassion, and love your body for exactly as it is now – perfectly imperfect, just like the rest of us.  It is only through self acceptance that change is possible – and missing the precious moments that we have NOW is time we cannot get back.
5. Make every workout new. By beginning each workout session with the breath, you can take a body scan to find the places in our body that need some gentleness, where we have tightness from previous workouts – even if we need a day off.  Finding what works each day is the product of being in tune with how you are now.  Forcing exercise only leads to not doing it (ever watch a toddler say NO! That’s our inner child at work!).  Breathe, notice, apply self care and a loving attitude, and embrace yourself as you are now – and watch yourself change!

Blueberries and Healthy Aging

By Lisa Schmidt and Alexandra Kazaks, PhD, RD

With blueberries ripe and ready for the picking, it’s the easiest time of year to embrace healthy aging.

The aging process depends on oxidation, a process in which the body’s own exhaust fumes wear down our DNA.  These fumes – known scientifically as “free radicals” – can wreak cellular havoc in a process called oxidative stress.

However, research suggests that we can slow down aging in almost every system of the body by eating antioxidant foods that help the body offset some of the damage that time and lifestyle can cause. These “superfoods” include fresh fruits and vegetables, with some of the best antioxidant sources at the peak of their freshness now.

The antioxidant power of food is measured by something called its oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) score. In studies of the longest-living human beings, researchers found that the common denominator is a diet exceptionally rich in antioxidant foods – with the longest living humans consuming high ORAC score foods consistently.

Among the highest antioxidant foods at their peak now are blueberries. These delicious, nutrient-dense berries are packed with bioflavonoids, a type of antioxidant that is speculated to help strengthen artery walls and maintain the structure of the skin. Researchers believe they contain anti-cancer and healthy aging properties, and may help lower cholesterol.

Fresh blueberries are plentiful during the summer months.  To choose the best berries, look for firm, plump, dry berries with smooth skins and a silvery sheen.  Size is not important, but color is:  reddish berries aren’t ripe, but are great for cooking.  Avoid soft or shriveled fruit, or any sign of mold.  If you see a container with juice stains, it may indicate that the fruit is damaged.

Refrigerate fresh blueberries as soon as you get them home. Wash them just before use, and consume within 10 days of purchase.  You also can pack away peak-season fruit to use for months ahead by freezing blueberries — unwashed and completely dry — in a resealable plastic bag or storage container. Just take out the berries you need, and return the bag to the freezer for up to a year.

Blueberries contain 80 calories a cup, are fat free and are a great source of vitamin C and dietary fiber. Just ½ cup of blueberries counts as one of your recommended five to nine servings a day of colorful fruits and vegetables. Add blueberries to your high-fiber breakfast cereal, sprinkle blueberries in your salad with chopped walnuts, or enjoy a healthful treat with blueberries and Greek yogurt sweetened with a little maple syrup. Enjoy this blueberry recipe and combine this superfood with a super treat!

Blueberry Smoothie
Enjoy this refreshing beverage that’s high in calcium and low in calories. Adding Chia Seeds, which can be found in the bulk foods section of PCC or Whole Foods Markets, boosts the nutritional profile of this drink with omega-3 fatty acids and soluble fiber.

2 cups fresh blueberries

1 cup (8-oz. container) low-fat vanilla, plain or Greek yogurt

1 cup fruit juice, such as orange, pineapple or apple

1 tablespoon Chia Seeds

1 tablespoon maple syrup, more or less to taste

In a blender, place blueberries, yogurt, juice, Chia seeds and maple syrup; blend until smooth.  Add crushed ice to make a thicker texture, if desired.  Serve immediately.

Per serving: 184 calories; 3.3 g fat; 1g saturated fat; 5 mg cholesterol; 35g carbohydrates; 6.6 g protein; 4.5 g fiber; 60 mg sodium.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Makes: About 3 cups

Copyright 2011, U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council

Non-profit, accredited Bastyr University (bastyr.edu) offers multiple degrees in the natural health sciences, and clinical training at Bastyr Center for Natural Health (bastyrcenter.org), the region’s largest natural medicine clinic.