Here in 2009, we are bombarded each day with marketing and advertising and sound bytes. Think of how many commercials you hear on radio or television, ads you see on-line, over your phone, in your email, your mailbox, or in the paper, everywhere we turn we run into someone or something trying to make us buy something, do something, or have a certain opinion. We’ve long been at the point where it is tough to tell truth from fiction. So how do you reach people who have trained themselves to tune out most of those messages? Well, you could use a big electronic reader board!
Former Bay County (Florida) Health Department Director Dr. Jason Newsom had 1) an important message, and 2) a big electronic reader board and even THAT fortuitous combination may not get you noticed until you start taking on major American businesses like Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC. Dr. Newsom, fed up with diet habits of average Americans, launched his campaign with gusto and wit. And, as the old saying goes, “the electronic reader board is mightier than the sword.” Scrolling across the board were his sayings, “Sweet Tea (equals) Liquid Sugar,” “Hamburger (equals) Spare Tire,” “French Fries (equals) Thunder Thighs,” and he parodied the “America Runs on Dunkin’” campaign with, “America Dies on Dunkin’.
He was given the choice of resigning or getting fired after “a county commissioner who owns a doughnut shop” and “two lawyers who own a new Dunkin’ Donuts” were less than amused. It is a good thing too, before he came up with more such as: “Eat a double fudge sundae and meet your maker,” or “Six cookies (equals) six feet under,” or even, “Hot dogs are kinda gross when you think about it.” But, alas, we can only wonder what that reader board would have led to.
Just so you don’t think Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t have a sense of humor, you can even buy a “Friends Don’t Let Friends Drink Starbucks” pre-shrunk, cotton, t-shirt on their website. We’ve checked and they offer other t-shirt sizes besides triple extra large.
At Fantasy Healthball, we don’t have an electronic reader board, but you can check out our nifty slogans on our website. And though linking major companies to a certain death may not have been Dr. Newsom’s brightest idea, if you read our nutrition section you won’t find us advocating for donuts or fried chicken. Okay, well maybe on special occasions. Yes, our lawyers made us say that. — Jim Ballard
Even if you checked “none of the above,” you may unknowingly be getting some of these products in food or drinks you consume on a regular basis. Or you may know these by other names – Nutrasweet and Equal are “aspartame” and Splenda is “sucralose.” Aspartame can be found in soft drinks, sugar-free chewing gum, yogurt, lemonade, and thousands of other foods and drinks. Sucralose is in candy, breakfast bars, soft drinks, and thousands of other foods and drinks.
We call these sweeteners “sugar on steriods.” Sucralose is about 600 times as sweet as table sugar. It is about twice as sweet as saccharin or Stevia, over three times as sweet as aspartame, and four times as sweet as a yellow lab puppy. Now that is sweet!
Stevia is the rookie joining the veteran artificial sweeteners. Click here to watch a really good two minute video that recently popped up on our health news feeds on our blog. Here is the article that goes with it. The video says that artificial sweeteners may actually lead to weight gain. It says, “When your body takes in something sweet, your metabolism revs up to start burning off the calories that usually follow. But when the calories just aren’t there, your body could get confused and the next time you take in real sugar that metabolic response may not kick in.” “The study seems to explain why some of the heaviest consumers of artificial sweeteners are some of the heaviest Americans.”
But the report points out it is just one study. And there have been tons of studies on these products. The FDA must approve these before they are sold in the US so all of these products have been deemed safe by the FDA. But the studies continue. Aspartame, for example, if you believe like I do that Wikipedia is the source of all the universe’s knowledge, was discovered in 1965 but there was worry it caused cancer in rats but it was finally approved in dry goods in the 1980s and for all foods in 1996. But even 10 years later, one study still concluded its toxicity increased several malignancies of rats. One rebuttal to the study said the researchers misdiagnosed lesions as malignancies. I guess one man’s malignancy is another man’s lesion.
With all that confusion and noise out there, here is some Fantasy Healthball logic for you: Americans consume way too much sugar. So what do we do when we realize that? We make chemical sugar that is hundreds of times sweeter and market it to people who want to lose weight and have good health! How about this crazy idea: let’s just eat less sugar.
Here at Fantasy Healthball, we can’t guarantee that if you consume lots of artificial sweeteners you will be safe or unsafe. We think the jury is still out on these products and it can take decades to know their true effects with certainty. Will you be perfectly safe? Will you get cancer? Will you grow a waddle and cluck like a chicken? We don’t know.
But what we DO KNOW is that it is healthier to keep sugar and artificial sweeteners to a minimum in your diet. Drinking pure, filtered water gets you a refreshing drink without artificial anything. We also suggest low or non fat milk, soy milk, 100% fruit juice (we love orange and apple), vegetable juice, tea, and our top scientists here at Fantasy Healthball (okay, it is me) are starting to look into Miller’s new 64 calorie beer, hmmmmm, more on that to come. — Jim Ballard
If you can plan out your lunch ahead of time and have it with you, you can make sure it is healthy. That may be your best bet for encouraging routine and consistency. If you are more of a forager at lunchtime, there are plenty of healthy choices. When Americans think lunch, we often think sandwiches. Sandwiches can be very healthy allowing you to hit the “meats” and the “milks (cheese)” and the grains. Go for the whole wheat or whole rye bread or leave the bread out entirely. Watch that mayo, depending on what kind it is it can be 100-200 calories an ounce. Salads and soups are also popular lunch items. We think having a salad drenched in dressing and bacon bits is a lot like ordering the hot fudge ice cream sundae with low-cal whipped cream. It is easy to turn innocent foods into hardened criminals, or should we say hardened arteries?
There is no perfect formula of what to eat for lunch versus breakfast or dinner. Just keep in mind the general proportions of the Fantasy Healthball Food Formation and the variety and nutritional value of the food. A good time to think about such things is when you are driving by, instead of driving through, the multitude of fast food restaurants. The LAST thing you want to be doing is driving around hungry without a particular destination in mind. You may be amazed how creative you mind can be talking you into fat and greaseland. Avoid it by by bringing your healthy lunch with you or having a particular healthy destination before getting in the car or walking to the place.
Consider our post on calories and the Food Formation and then think about: Big Mac, large fries, and a chocolate shake – about 1,500 calories. That is getting in the ballpark of a DAILY allowance of calories! Numbers like that are pretty hard to swallow! — Jim Ballard
Let’s admit it. You are hungry, probably tired, maybe a little stressed, you stare into the vending machine and it is filled with things that make your mouth water – chips, candy bars, in fact, the healthiest thing in there are an old tired looking bag of trail mix that looks like it has some cobwebs on it. So you go for the Snickers and move on. Here at Fantasy Healthball, we think the spur of the moment choice is most often going to be a bad choice. The trick is to not put yourself in that position to begin with. This isn’t something to read and think “yeah, that would be a good idea,” we mean you should do this NOW, start planning ahead for what you will put in your body today and at work next week.
The answer is planning. Planning is the secret. You have to think about food ahead of time. Getting your daily fruit servings is easy if you eat a banana in the morning and take an apple or two with you to work. If you have a bag of oranges at work, it is easy to reach for one of them rather than quarters for the vending machine. Make sure your home refrigerator/pantry has the healthy foods that you can take with you when you are away from home. Here is how we plan ahead for our veggies.
If you are going out to eat, know the healthy options near you for restaurants or at least the healthy items at the restaurant. Don’t wait until you are starving to go out to eat. Sprinkle in healthy snacks (yogurt, granola, fruit) so that you aren’t starving at the lunch counter or dinner table later.
Bring healthy foods with you because if you leave it to chance, it may not happen. Plan low sodium. Plan low fat. Plan healthy. If you want to know what to eat, click here and stay tuned to our next posts. — Jim Ballard
<Update: There is still plenty of time to get into the Fantasy Healthball action for 2009. If you like what you read here, check out our website. You can take on the NFL pros and use your passion for football to get passion for great health. Tell your friends and Read more here…>
If you are the quantitative type, you can calculate an estimate of how many calories you need per day and then how many you need to cut to lose a particular amount of weight over time. An easy way to do this is to use an on-line calculator. Just type “Daily Calorie Need calculator” into your search engine and you’ll have your choice of thousands, or click on one of these: American Cancer Society to 24-Hour Fitness centers to the Mayo Clinic.
As an example, let’s say Leroy is a 40-year old, 200-pound man who is 5”11.” Leroy has a light activity level as he has a desk job and doesn’t exercise much. He would need around 2,500 calories per day (when we say “need,” we mean how much would be needed to maintain current body weight). Since a pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories, he’d have to cut 500 calories a day to lose a pound per week. So if Leroy wants to lose a pound a week, he could cut his calories back to 2,000 a day. Leroy could also chose a healthier route such as only cutting his calories back to 2,250 but also exercising to burn the other 250.
A second example, Juanita, is a 25-year old, 130-pound woman who is 5’4.” Juanita has a moderate activity level because she likes to jog a few times a week. She would need about 2,000 calories per day. Again, a pound of body fat equals 3,500 calories, so it takes a cut of 500 calories a day to lose a pound per week. If Juanita wants to lose a pound a week, she could cut her calories to 1,500 a day. A better plan for Juanita might be to cut her calories to 1,750 per day and work in swimming on days that she doesn’t jog for the other 250.
But maybe a pound a week isn’t Juanita’s goal. Perhaps she only wants to drop five pounds for her wedding in six months. Using the same information above, she would only need to cut a little under 100 calories a day, cutting her total calories to just under 1,900 per day. She’d drop the weight over a longer period of time and be in the shape she wants to be for her wedding.
Our Fantasy Healthball challenge for you is to track the calories you eat for a week. Okay, let’s make it even more simple. Track them for a day. Compare that against your daily need from an on-line calculator. Does your calorie lifestyle point towards gaining, losing, or maintaining weight? If it is gaining beyond what is healthy for you, check out our Exercise section for ways to drop some of those unwanted calories. — Jim Ballard
Our last post clearly illustrates the importance of paying very close attention to “serving size.” The nutritional information on the side of a package doesn’t necessarily equal the total amount of food or drink. It relates to one serving. For example, I just pulled out of my pantry a bag of pretzels. To be specific, they are Trader Joe’s Low Fat Honey Whole Wheat Pretzel Sticks. The nutrition label says “Calories 110.” Don’t be fooled to think there are a total of 110 calories in the bag, because the information applies to each serving. The label says each serving size is 10 sticks and there are 12 servings in the bag. In other words, every 10 sticks (not the whole bag) equal 110 calories.
Don’t let serving sizes trick you. A box of twelve fat-free cookies might say 50 calories per serving. That doesn’t sound too bad until you see that serving size is only one cookie. That means each cookie is 50 calories, which can add up fast.
Serving sizes, as well as calories and fat, is part of why fast food has a deservedly bad rap. When you super-size it, you super-size the calories and fat. You just don’t need it and it really isn’t good enough to be worth it. When you are going to allow yourself something that is high in calories or fat, make sure it is an exceptionally wonderful food or drink, not just an extra fistful of French fries.
How many calories your body needs to be active varies, of course, from person to person. It depends on such things as your normal level of activity and your metabolism. A truck driver will generally need fewer calories than a construction laborer, if they both have similar bodies.
It is all about calorie in, calorie out. If you take in more than you need, without burning them off, you will gain weight. You’ll lose weight if you burn off more than you need, without overdoing it. More on this in our next post! — Jim Ballard
Behold the magical food: fat-free! Fat free? So does that mean healthy? Unfortunately, as we’ve said before, fat isn’t the whole picture. These days you can find fat-free cakes, brownies, and cookies at the grocery store. However, take a look at the calorie count, and the sugar and sodium. Calories rule. When you are trying to lose weight, it is about calorie in, calorie out.
Fat-free foods may be a part of a healthy diet, but cannot be eaten with reckless abandon if you are getting hit with too many calories.
Another ingredient I personally like to avoid is high-fructose corn syrup. For one reason, the words themselves scare me. Sounds to me like it is sugar that is extremely high in sugar. Since we are not doctors, we’re not going to get into the studies that link high-fructose corn syrup to weight gain, high blood pressure, and other health problems, but instead we’ll let some examples of foods high in high-fructose corn syrup speak for themselves: soda, candy, cookies, cakes, jam, jellies, pancake syrup, sweetened cereals. Sounds like those fall into the “use very sparingly” category to us.
Sparingly, by the way, is “once in a while” not “I’ll only drink two sodas today instead of five.”
You may also want to keep your eye on sodium content as it has been linked to high blood pressure. The daily limit is set at 1,500-2,300 milligrams. Though this may sound like a high number, sodium seems to be in everything. According to their website, a can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup has 890 milligrams of sodium per serving, a half a cup of condensed soup. The standard sized can says it contains 2.5 servings. That means eating one can of soup gets you just about to the daily limit. So don’t even think about those salted crackers on top! At Fantasy Healthball’s Diet and Nutrition section, we aren’t militant about what you can and can’t eat. We just want you to be smart about it by knowing what is going in your mouth and what it is going to do once it gets in your body. - Jim Ballard
Jeff and I often talk about how culture and environment influence healthy decisions. Having both grown up in Illinois, we know what it is like to play basketball on a driveway that is a sheet of ice or how hard it can be some days to get motivated to play baseball on a day with triple digit heat and humidity – where it just feels like you may melt into the sidewalk. Regional cultural differences also come into play. Do you have more health food stores or fast food restaurants in your neighborhood? Does your local restaurants have healthy items on the menu and how can you even tell?
Recently, in California, the Governator passed a state law, the first of its kind in the nation, that says chain restaurants have to display calorie counts with each menu item. It covers more than 17,000 restaurants in California.
State Sen. Alex Padilla proposed the legislation. He said, “All Californians will soon be empowered with reliable, accessible nutrition information . . . that will help them make more informed, healthier choices.” Gov. Arnold signed the bill at a Sacramento-area Chili’s Bar and Grill.
The new law applies to restaurants with 20 or more locations in California. Beginning July 1, 2009, they will be required to provide brochures containing nutritional information including number of calories and grams of saturated fat. Starting Jan. 1, 2011, all menus and menu boards above front counters will have to include the number of calories for each item.
Well, sure you can Jack. It is not that calories are bad, it is just that if you want to lose weight, you’ll need to control the amount you are taking in so that you won’t have as much to work off.
Foods that are lower in calories but rich in nutrients are the healthiest for you. Think whole-grain breads and cereals, rice, beans, vegetables, and fruits. The opposite of this are foods high in calories and low in nutrients. You’ve heard the term, “empty calories,” which basically means calories without nutrients. Alcohol is an example of this, as is candy and sugary foods.
What exactly is a calorie anyhow? Since they show up near the top of every nutrition label, it seems like they might be some sort of nutrient. But they are not. A calorie is just a specific unit of heat.
That’s important because heat is generated when your body processes food and the heat generates energy. So calories, in essence, give you the energy you need to be active. Where the problems start is if you take in a too many of them and then don’t complete the other side of the deal, being active and burning them off.
The FDA in 2006 introduced the general guide to calories, which says a single-food item with 40 calories is low calorie, one with 100 calories is moderate calorie, and one with 400 calories is high calorie.
Try entering a food in the search box at the Nutrition Data website. It displays the nutrition facts for an enormous number of food and beverage items just as it would appear if on the side of the package. And it gives you many choices for serving sizes so you can get more accurate. It also includes some restaurant food such as McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Krispy Kreme, Pizza Hut, Starbuck’s, and Taco Bell – which hopefully you won’t need!
Posted by Jim Ballard 
Posted by Jim Ballard 
Posted by Jim Ballard 
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