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An article at Diabetes Care suggests that insulin-treated T2 diabetics getting bariatric surgery were almost twice as likely to get off insulin if they had roux-en-Y gastric bypass rather than laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding. The former procedure is also generally more effective for weight loss.
If you think bariatric surgery is a sure-fire cure for type 2 diabetes, it’s not.
Steve Parker, M.D.
Filed under Overweight and Obesity
247 pages
I just finished reading The Low Carb Dietitian’s Guide to Health and Beauty, written by Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE, and published in January 2015. CDE, but the way, means Certified Diabetes Educator. Per Amazon’s rating system, I give it five stars (I love it). It’s not written specifically for women with diabetes, but the included recipes are quite consistent with a healthy diabetic diet. Since the author provides the carbohydrate grams with her recipes, you can use them with my Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet and Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet.
This valuable addition to the low-carb literature is unique: No other book covers the beauty and health aspects of low-carb eating specifically in women.
I’m a strong proponent of carbohydrate-restricted eating for weight management and cure or control of certain medical conditions. The great advantages of low-carbing for weight loss are 1) suppression of hunger, and 2) proven greater efficacy compared to other types of dieting. Nevertheless, I wasn’t aware that this way of eating also had potential benefits in terms of beauty maintenance or improvement. The author persuasively makes that case in this ground-breaking book.
Just because she has RD (registered dietitian) behind her name doesn’t mean you just have to take her word for it. Franziska gives us references to the scientific literature if you want to check it out yourself.
The author focuses on health and beauty; the weight loss happens naturally with low-carb eating. That’s a helpful “side effect” since 2/3 of women in the U.S. are overweight or obese.
She covers all the basics of low-carb eating, including the rationale, potential side effects and how to prevent or deal with them, the science of “good fats,” the importance of plant-derived foods and fiber, info on artificial sweeteners, and management of weight-loss stalls.
Then Franziska does something else unique and very helpful. She offers three different eating plans along with a simple test to help determine which is the best for you. The options are 1) low-carbohydrate diet, 2) high-fiber, moderate saturated fat, low-carb diet, and 3) intermittent fasting low-carb diet with weekly treat meal. You can dig right in with a week’s worth of easy meals made from readily available ingredients.
It was interesting for me to learn that the author ate vegan-style and then pescetarian for awhile. In 2011 she was eating the usual doctor-recommended “healthy” low-fat high-fiber diet when life insurance blood work indicated she had prediabetes. So she cut her daily dietary carbs from 150 grams to 50 or less, with subsequent return of the labs to normal ranges.
I only had a few quibbles with the book. For instance, there’s no index, but that’s mitigated by a very detailed table of contents. The font size is on the small side for my 60-year-old eyes. If either of those issues bother you, get the ebook version. “Net carbs” are mentioned briefly before they are defined, which might confuse folks new to low-carbing.
A particular feature that appealed to me is the vegetarian meal options. Low-carb eating is often criticized as being meat-centric. Franziska shows it doesn’t have to be.
I also appreciate that she provides the net carb grams and calorie counts for her meal plans and recipes. All diabetics and many prediabetics need to know the carb grams. Calorie counts come in handy when analyzing the cause of a weight loss stall. Yes, calories still count in weight management.
I don’t think it’s giving too much away to say that the author’s top low-carb beauty foods are avocados, berries, cinnamon, cocoa/dark chocolate, fatty fish, flaxseed, full-fat dairy, green tea, nuts, olives/olive oil, and non-starchy vegetables. I was skeptical at the start of the beauty foods chapter, but Franziska’s scientific references support her recommendations. I’m already eating most of these foods. Now I’m going to try green tea and ground flaxseed (e.g., her flaxseed bread recipe).
The author will also get you going on exercise. I heartily agree with her that exercise is truly a fountain of youth.
Menopausal? The author has your special challenges covered.
If you’re curious about the paleo diet, note that only about a quarter of these recipes are pure paleo. Dairy products disqualify many of them.
Here are a just a few tidbits I picked up, to help me remember them:
I wouldn’t be surprised if Franziska’s recommendations help men as well as women keep or regain their youthfulness.
Filed under Book Reviews, ketogenic diet, Overweight and Obesity, Vegetarian Diet
Only one.
And obese men in the U.S. don’t do much better at 3.6 hours/year.
We exercised like this when we were kids
myfoxny.com has the story based on an article in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. A quote:
What kind of lives are the most inactive people living? “I think they’re living the typical life. They drive their children to school, they sit at a desk all day long, they may play some video games and they go to sleep,” Archer said.
He forgot about TV. What’s the American daily average now? Three hours?
Without a doubt, it’s incredibly difficult to exercise if you’re markedly obese. Here’s how.
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Filed under Exercise, Overweight and Obesity
Are you tired of this stock photo yet?
MedPageToday has the details. A quote:
In a computer modeling study, very obese men lost just over 8 years of life compared with normal-weight men, and very obese women lost as many as 6 years, Steven Grover, PhD, of McGill University, and colleagues reported online in the Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.
They also found that very obese men and women (defined as a body mass index [BMI] of 35 and higher) lost about 19 years of healthy life, defined as living free of chronic disease such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Note that “very obese” in this context has a specific definition: body mass index 35 or higher. Calculate yours.
The number of life years lost to obesity and disease were highest for those who were very obese in young adulthood and presumably stayed obese for years. In other words, becoming very obese at age 60 is not as dangerous as at 25.
I first got interested in weight loss in the 1990s when I had an office-based primary care medical practice. It was obvious that many of the medical problems I was treating were related to years of obesity. Believe me, you’re much better off preventing those problems via diet and exercise.
Click for The Lancet study abstract.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Filed under Diabetes Complications, Heart Disease, Longevity, Overweight and Obesity
So easy to over-eat!
The U.S. trend of increasing overweight and obesity started about 1970. I wonder if eating away from home is related to the trend. I found a USDA report with pertinent data from 1977 to 1995. It also has interesting info on snacking and total calories consumed. Some quotes:
“We define home and away-from-home foods based on where the foods are obtained, not where they are eaten. Food at home consists of foods purchased at a retail store, such as a grocery store, a convenience store, or a supermarket. Food away from home consists of foods obtained at various places other than retail stores (mainly food-service establishments).”
***
“Over the past two decades, the number of meals consumed has remained fairly stable at 2.6 to 2.7 per day. However, snacking has increased, from less than once a day in 1987–88 to 1.6 times per day in 1995. The increased popularity in dining out is evident as the proportion of meals away from home increased from 16 percent in 1977–78 to 29 percent in 1995, and the proportion of snacks away from home rose from 17 percent in 1977–78 to 22 percent in 1995. Overall, eating occasions (meals and snacks) away from home increased by more than two-thirds over the past two decades, from 16 percent of all eating occasions in 1977–78 to 27 percent in 1995.”
***
“Average caloric intake declined from 1,876 calories per person per day in 1977–78 to 1,807 calories per person per day in 1987–88, then rose steadily to 2,043 calories per person per day in 1995.”
***
“These numbers suggest that, when eating out, people either eat more or eat higher-calorie foods or both.”
Parker here. I’m well aware that these data points don’t prove that increased eating-out, increased snacking, and increased total calorie consumption have caused our overweight and obesity problem. But they sure make you wonder, don’t they? None of these factors was on a recent list of potential causes of obesity.
If accurate, the increased calories alone could be the cause. Fast-food and other restaurants do all they possibly can to satisfy your cravings and earn your repeat business.
If you struggle with overweight, why not cut down on snacking and eating meals away from home?
Bonus:
Here’s a pie chart I found with more current and detailed information from the U.S. government (h/t Yoni Freedhoff):
Filed under Overweight and Obesity
No need to dine out if you have one of the four “Low-Carbing Among Friends” cookbooks
The U.S. trend of increasing overweight and obesity started about 1970. I wonder if eating away from home is related to the trend. I found a USDA report with pertinent data from 1977 to 1995. It also has interesting info on snacking and total calories consumed. Some quotes:
“We define home and away-from-home foods based on where the foods are obtained, not where they are eaten. Food at home consists of foods purchased at a retail store, such as a grocery store, a convenience store, or a supermarket. Food away from home consists of foods obtained at various places other than retail stores (mainly food-service establishments).”
***
“Over the past two decades, the number of meals consumed has remained fairly stable at 2.6 to 2.7 per day. However, snacking has increased, from less than once a day in 1987-88 to 1.6 times per day in 1995. The increased popularity in dining out is evident as the proportion of meals away from home increased from 16 percent in 1977-78 to 29 percent in 1995, and the proportion of snacks away from home rose from 17 percent in 1977-78 to 22 percent in 1995. Overall, eating occasions (meals and snacks) away from home increased by more than two-thirds over the past two decades, from 16 percent of all eating occasions in 1977-78 to 27 percent in 1995.”
***
“Average caloric intake declined from 1,876 calories per person per day in 1977-78 to 1,807 calories per person per day in 1987-88, then rose steadily to 2,043 calories per person per day in 1995.”
***
“These numbers suggest that, when eating out, people either eat more or eat higher-calorie foods or both.”
Parker here. I’m well aware that these data points don’t prove that increased eating-out, increased snacking, and increased total calorie consumption have caused our overweight and obesity problem. But they sure make you wonder, don’t they? None of these factors was on a recent list of potential causes of obesity.
If accurate, the increased calories alone could be the cause. Fast-food and other restaurants do all they possibly can to satisfy your cravings and earn your repeat business.
If you struggle with overweight, why not cut down on snacking and eating meals away from home?
Comments Off on Dining Out and Obesity: Related?
Filed under Overweight and Obesity, Uncategorized
I’ll eat my hat if this dude doesn’t have metabolic syndrome
Some studies suggest you can be healthy and long-lived while obese as long as you are “metabolically healthy.” That is, if you have normal blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, blood sugar, and waist circumference. A new meta-analysis finds that isn’t the case: you’re still at higher risk for death or cardiovascular events if you’re obese and free of metabolic syndrome features.
“Our results do not support this concept of ‘benign obesity’ and demonstrate that there is no ‘healthy’ pattern of obesity,” Kramer and colleagues wrote. “Even within the same category of metabolic status (healthy or unhealthy) we show that certain cardiovascular risk factors (blood pressure, waist circumference, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, insulin resistance) progressively increase from normal weight to overweight to obese.”
Click for the scientific journal abstract.
This report does not directly address the “fat but fit” concept, whereby you can counteract some of the adverse health effects of obesity by being fit. By fit, I mean regularly exercising and achieving a decent level of capacity and tolerance for physical activity. Fat but fit still holds. In other words, if your choice is between being fat or physically fit, you’ll probably live longer and be healthier if you’re fit.
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Filed under Longevity, Overweight and Obesity, Uncategorized
DietDoctor Andreas Eenfeldt has located three studies that answer in the affirmative. Click through to his blog.
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Filed under Overweight and Obesity
You can make a good case for protein. Julianne Taylor has the sciencey details in a fine post at her blog. She talks about insulin, glycogen, digestion, glycemic index, and the benefits of vegetable and fruit carbohydrates over grains.
Filed under Overweight and Obesity, Protein, Weight Loss
Absolutely nothing to do with sleep or obesity
It’s currently popular to blame inadequate sleep time for overweight and obesity. I found a study supporting that idea in children, but not adults. Here’s the authors’ conclusion:
While shorter sleep duration consistently predicts subsequent weight gain in children, the relationship is not clear in adults. We discuss possible limitations of the current studies: 1.) the diminishing association between short sleep duration on weight gain over time after transition to short sleep, 2.) lack of inclusion of appropriate confounding, mediating, and moderating variables (i.e. sleep complaints and sedentary behavior), and 3.) measurement issues.
I found another analysis from a different team that is skeptical about the association of sleep deprivation and obesity in adults.
Everybody knows adults are getting less sleep now than we did decades ago, right? Well, not really. From Sleep Duration Across the Lifespan: Implications for Health:
Twelve studies, representing data from 15 countries and a time period of approximately 40 years, attempted to document changes in sleep duration over that time period. They found that, overall, there is no consistent evidence that sleep durations worldwide are declining among adults. Sleep duration decreased in six countries, sleep duration increased in seven countries, and mixed results were detected in two (one of which was the USA). In particular, the data from the USA suggest that although mean sleep duration may have actually increased slightly over the past 40 years, the proportion of short sleepers (six hours per night or less) also seems to have increased over the past several decades.
See, it’s complicated. Don’t believe everything you read. Not even this.
Filed under Overweight and Obesity
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