A New Year, An Old Thought—Here We Go Again

We’ve all made resolutions, usually about once a year when January 1 rolls around, resolutions about working toward healthier habits, and ultimately, better health. And, we’ve all, at times veered away from our best intentions, usually unintentionally. This says, “we’re human. It’s what we humans do.” And, it also says we sometimes end up doing what we don’t intend to do or want to do. That’s part of what makes us human. When we make a resolution, or set our sights on a goal we want to meet—and then we don’t, that also makes us human. Maybe not happy with ourselves, but human.

So if we don’t give up, we try again, and maybe we try harder. We fall down six times, we get up seven. But, just how hard are we supposed to try? How hard is this wellness stuff supposed to be?

Actually, it’s about as hard as we make it. It’s really pretty simple. It’s just not easy. So, which is it? Well, like life, it’s a long chain of choices. There are “cues” all around us that move us toward or away from the choices we make—and the reasons why. We make certain choices because we think they are better for us. We associate the choices we make with comfort or denial, success or failure. And, sometimes we choose one thing over another without even knowing why. (Do you know that by simply believing something is good for you, or believing it tastes good, you attribute a higher value to it—and eat more of it. As an example, if you see an expensive looking name on a bottle of wine, you will tend to drink more of it.)

Now, let’s think about less . . . because less of something is also a choice. Less isn’t necessarily about deprivation. As an active choice, less of something can actually be more (no this isn’t gobbledygook, there is a point), depending on how you choose to look at it. Less food can mean better health (more health). It can mean weight loss (more health). It can mean success as you go after your New Year’s resolution (more health). You probably have the idea by now. And, where ideas are concerned, here’s a wild one . . . we know it’s socially acceptable to support each other when we’re trying to break the smoking habit. Think what we could accomplish, individually and collectively, if we made eating a less socially acceptable habit?

Here’s a final thought on the choices we make, the reasons we make them, and what we hope to achieve with our New Year’s resolution of working toward better health and healthier habits. Have you ever thought about what you can accomplish if rather than focusing on what you “have” to give up, you focus instead on what you will get in return?

What Each Choice Can Mean

In case you don’t already know, each of us makes about 200 food and beverage choices every day.  That’s a lot of choices—and an opportunity—to make those choices count. And, they will count. Dr. Steven Lamm, Internist with NYU School of Medicine and Contributing Editor of the Best Life Magazine, points out that the foods we choose to eat on a daily basis contribute 80 percent to whether we will develop diabetes, heart disease, or cancer.

Whether you’re shopping for food, eating at home or eating out, what you choose to eat has the potential to lower healthcare costs. Fresh, home-cooked meals with plenty of natural ingredients, vegetables and fruits tells your family their health is important.

The next time you go to the grocery store, notice the aisles of chips, cookies, candy and soft drinks (including sports drinks loaded with sugar).  The frozen cases are filled with cakes, pies, cookie dough, ice cream, and more. Then there’s the check out with still more candy—right there within arm’s reach. It’s all there, spread throughout the store so you can’t miss it even if you try. 

Now, look at the aisles of packaged, processed, boxed, pre-prepared and ready-to-eat meals, with ingredients not many of us can pronounce. Too much sodium, too little nutrition.  Believe it, every choice you make, every dollar you spend sends a message about what is important to you. 

This might be a good time to give some real food for thought to making better  nutritional choices. Your own and your family’s health depends on each bite. Since they all add up anyway, why not make them count?

That Little, Bitty Thing

You can’t see them. You can’t hear them. You can’t touch them or taste them. But you can count them and cut them. It’s not a riddle. We’re talking about calories, and we are obsessed with them.

We all know we need enough calories to support our basic needs, but not so many calories that we exceed those needs. And, yet  more than 64 percent of us exceed those needs on a regular basis, regular enough that it’s resulted in an obesity epidemic, with chronic illness and type 2 diabetes mushrooming out of control.  One-third of all children consume too many calories on a daily basis, and as a result are overweight or obese.  Those pesky excess calories are everywhere—convenience stores, gas stations, pharmacies, bookstores, electronics stores, garden centers, department stores. Grocery stores offer free food samples, and of course you can expect a lot of calories from the food court at most malls.

Not only is food everywhere, including places it doesn’t really need to be, but there’s so much of it. This is where portion size meets calorie intake. Meals are super-sized, sodas come in 64-oz “Big Gulp” sizes, and those personal pizzas can house a day’s calories. Restaurant portions generally provide enough food—and calories to constitute a meal for two—or more.

If you’re one of the 45 million Americans counting calories, you need to also consider where those calories come from, and what they do once they’re on their way down your throat. While it’s important to be mindful of the calories taken in, it’s also important to be mindful of how those calories are stored and burned. Those 100 calories from the fun-size candy bar aren’t going to provide the nutrition you’ll get from a handful of almonds or walnuts, or an apple or a banana with 100 calories—but they will be stored as fat.  (And, don’t you appreciate how using the word fun-size makes it seem more OK to eat than if it said junk-size?)

The majority of us underestimate how much we eat, and how many calories we consume. But, if we’re mindful, we might be in for a big surprise, one that might provide the motivation to think first about the nutritional choices we make, and how those choices will ultimately influence our overall health and general well-being.

And if you’re wondering what a calorie really is, it’s a measure of energy, just as a volt is a measure of electricity, a pound is a measure of weight and a mile is a measure of distance. Technically a calorie indicates how much energy it takes to change the temperature of 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius. (This would make more sense maybe if your body was made of ice, but, it’s not, and this is the definition.)

Now, are you ready to take on the “energy” of something you can’t even see, touch or taste? What do you have to lose?

Yes or No . . . Diet Soda? How About Those Artificial Sweeteners?

According to the American Dietetic Association, the average American consumes 22 teaspoons each day of added sugar. That's 16 calories per teaspoon, 352 calories per day and 2464 calories per week.

The source of much of that added sugar--soda. A 12-oz can of sweetened soda contains around 150 calories and 9 of those 22 teaspoons of sugar. The American Dietetic Association points out that substituting one diet drink each day for a sweetened soda can save 4500 calories per month, along with the potential of about one pound of weight loss per month. What they don't point out is . . .

• In that diet soda, you're ingesting the equivalent of five packets of artificial sweetener.
• You're also increasing your risk of osteoporosis, pancreatic cancer and diabetes.

 Research shows that diet sodas do not facilitate weight loss. Neither do sugar free foods, many of which are only slightly lower in calories than their regular counterparts. The reason, according to a Purdue University study, is that artificial sweeteners do not turn on satiety signals the way sugar, protein and fat do--meaning we don't feel full and continue eating. 

Armed with this information, consider this from the Center for Science in the Public Interest: Pepsi is being sued by a Madison County, Illinois man claiming to have found a mouse in his soft drink. That's bad enough. Pepsi's defense is worse--they say it's not possible the mouse was in the can when it was sealed, because it would have disintegrated from the acid in the soda.

This is what we are consuming. But do we really want to? Guess what happens when you drink a glass of water instead?

Where Does It All Go?

Where is a good question, but the even bigger question is why?

The food industry spends around $2 billion a year advertising food to children. Maybe this is why cookies, cakes, pizza and soft drinks are the top sources of calories in the diets of children ages 2 through 18. Maybe this is why french fries and chips make up half of all the vegetables American children eat. Maybe this is why we have a childhood obesity problem—that turns into an adult obesity epidemic.

And now, consider what we spend to combat this spending as we spend even more to “get thin.” American consumers spent $61 billion last year to try new ways to lose weight. According to a recent report, The U.S. Weight Loss & Diet Control Market, that’s $200 for each man, woman and child in the U.S. Now, if you factor in that only 75 million of us are trying to lose weight, that makes it $800 per person.

We’re spending a lot—but that $61 billion diet industry pales in comparison to the $300 billion fast food industry. And while we’re spending all this money, our collective weight keeps going up. These are huge numbers, and think about what we could accomplish if we weren’t supporting a $61 billion diet industry and a $300 billion fast food industry. Imagine the impact this would have on our preventable chronic illnesses and the $1.9 trillion we’ll spend to treat them this year.

So, here are the takeaway questions . . . are we spending wisely? Why aren’t we changing our behaviors?