BeanDiet

I used to be strongly opposed to calorie counting, since I was utterly convinced it didn't do anything but make people crazy and depressed. Then I met Norbert, a fellow at the rock climbing gym who lost 30 pounds and kept it off for about 2 years. Recently, I met Norbert's friend Tom, who also lost 30 pounds and has kept it off.

So alas, I can't reject calorie counting anymore. Obviously, sometimes it really works.

Both these men use an online computer site called: www.myfooddiary.com. They say it only takes five minutes a day. So please check it out and let me know if it works for you. (Nutritionists need to know this stuff).

Maybe you won't want to start until January... 'tis the season!

A few months back I gave a lecture on weight loss and preventing diabetes to a group of dietitians. I would say I was well received by the audience, but the coordinators of the group were taken a little off-guard. These were women trained in "dietetics", which largely supports any chemicals and/or substances approved by the FDA (read: artificial sweeteners & arficial everything, MSG, partially-hydrogenated oils to some degree, yada yada). They had some questions as to studies supporting why I deemed artificial sweeteners as hindering weight loss, and my claims for fibrous foods in weight loss.

I did send them an email referencing the studies, but here's what I wanted to say:

IT WORKS!

Last week, a sixty-year-old woman who has been taking my nutrition class for 11 weeks approached me. Here's the deal: since she's taken my class, she's cut out meat and dairy and upped her fiber. She also quit taking vitamin supplements. So far she's lost 12 pounds, gotten rid of the sinus headaches she woke up to every morning, is no longer hypoglycemic, and has significantly lower blood pressure.

A few weeks before, I spoke at a workplace for the second time in four months. I met three women who told me they had lost 30, 20 and 11 pounds, respectively. One told me after one week of changing her diet, she woke up feeling better than she has in years - and has felt that way ever since.

A few years ago, one man somehow got my home phone number and left me his experience on my message machine. He's a retired dentist, and his daughter gave him my book after attending my seminar at a dental conference in Las Vegas. At age 60, he just wanted me to know that he'd lost 31 pounds and kept it off for a year and a half.

There are so many more stories like this, I could fill up cyberspace. But all to say: IT WORKS.

For those of you who'd like more evidence, a recent study published in Obesity Journal show it too. They found overweight, post-menopausal women lost significantly more weight over a two-year period on a vegan diet vs. the National Cholesterol Education Program diet (a low-fat, "healthy", dietitian-type kind of diet). In fact, the women following the vegan diet lost an average of 11 pounds the first year, and 7 pounds the second year. So I guess after menopause women don't "have to" just put on weight. YEAH!

For those of you who didn't read the paper today... ignorance is not bliss.

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Medical Writer
Published: Sunday, Nov. 09, 2008
NEW ORLEANS -- Vitamins C and E - pills taken by millions of Americans - do nothing to prevent heart disease in men, one of the largest and longest studies of these supplements has found.

Vitamin E even appeared to raise the risk of bleeding strokes, a danger seen in at least one earlier study.

Besides questioning whether vitamins help, "we have to worry about potential harm," said Barbara Howard, a nutrition scientist at MedStar Research Institute of Hyattsville, Md.

She has no role in the research but reviewed and discussed it Sunday at an American Heart Association conference. Results also were published online by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

About 12 percent of Americans take supplements of C and E despite growing evidence that these antioxidants do not prevent heart disease and may even be harmful.

Male smokers taking vitamin E had a higher rate of bleeding strokes in a previous study, and several others found no benefit for heart health.

As for vitamin C, some research suggests it may aid cancer, not fight it. A previous study in women at high risk of heart problems found it did not prevent heart attacks.

Few long-term studies have been done. The new one is the Physicians Health Study, led by Drs. Howard Sesso and J. Michael Gaziano of Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

It involved 14,641 male doctors, 50 or older, including 5 percent who had heart disease at the time the study started in 1997. They were put into four groups and given either vitamin E, vitamin C, both, or dummy pills. The dose of E was 400 international units every other day; C was 500 milligrams daily.

After an average of eight years, no difference was seen in the rates of heart attack, stroke or heart-related deaths among the groups.

However, 39 men taking E suffered bleeding strokes versus only 23 of the others, which works out to a 74 percent greater risk for vitamin-takers.

******
So, if you just happen to know anyone who is still taking supplements, thinking they're warding off a flu or heart disease - please save them some money, and possibly their life by forwarding this to them.

As some of you know, I am currently working on book number two. And yes, it's a lot of work. But the best part is citing studies that affirm everything I preach: being reminded of just how POWERFUL our diet is.

Yesterday I came across this study about the power of water in preventing cancer in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. To read the entire study, click here.

The first study referenced shows that water intake plays a significant role in preventing cancer of the bladder. After following almost 48,000 people for 10 years, researchers found those in the highest quintile, or one-fifth, of fluid intake had a 49% lower incidence of bladder cancer than those in the lowest quintile.

The second study referenced a hospital-based case-control study on a total of 163 patients (age 33 to 80 years) with confirmed primary colorectal cancer in Taiwan. The odds ratio for colorectal cancer among men in the lowest tertile, or one-third, of water consumption was approximately four-fold that among men in the highest tertile. In other words, the men that drank the least water had 4x the risk of developing colon cancer.

Finally, when comparing a group of women with newly diagnosed confirmed breast cancer (n = 44) with controls (n = 55), researchers found a 4.7-fold difference in the odds of exposure between cases and controls.

Isn't it amazing to think something so simple can save your life? I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty thirsty right now.