10 slim facts for a trim waistline
More than any part of the body, the midsection is the most common problem of men and women especially as they age. While gravity’s pull seems to be stronger as years pass, resulting in sagging arms and breasts, the walls of the gut seem to collapse, resulting in protrusions and bulges. Now come two doctors who’ve taken it as their mission to explain in simple and even humorous and engaging ways why many of us struggle with managing our waistlines. They go by the dictum, “Knowledge is power.” They want to empower readers by allowing them to understand how the body stores and burns fat for successful and long-term waist and weight management. Released only last year, the book YOU on a Diet: The Owner’s Manual for Waist Management is already on the bestsellers’ list. Honestly, it is easy to overlook this book as the cover doesn’t stand out. While National Book Store sent me a copy for my comments, it stared at me for weeks until I chanced upon the authors Dr. Mehmet Oz and Dr. Michael Roizen on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Minutes after watching the show, the nuggets of information animatedly shared by Dr. Oz while showing props of body organs captivated me enough to grab the book and uncover the secrets to waist management. As the title implies, the authors’ main message is that you should focus on achieving and maintaining a healthy waistline, for this is a better indication of health than your weight. A bigger waistline than ideal (less than 32 for women and 35 for men) means an abnormal fat storage that increases one’s medical risks for a lot of diseases. Testimonials were featured showing how the YOU doctors helped changed their daily eating and exercise routines. Both women interviewed claim that the changes were minor and easy to stick to. Both remarkably lost a lot of inches from their midsections. The regimen they followed is outlined in the latter part of the book after the medical pair first explain the dynamics of how food is processed and stored. Dr. Oz is the vice-chairman of surgery and professor of cardiac surgery at
Certain realities should be understood so that one may escape the drudgery of always being on a diet. When you eat smart and live right, you will maintain a sexy midsection that is not only for flaunting but also an indication of a longer, healthier life. The book provides a comprehensive study on the subject in a manner and language lay people can appreciate. As a teaser, I have handpicked 10 simple tips from the book to get you started:
• Eat breakfast fiber. The recommended amount of fiber intake is 30 grams a day, but the YOU doctors said the bulk of that should be taken in the morning. Studies confirm that if you take fiber in the morning for breakfast, then it makes you less vulnerable to sweet cravings by afternoon. Aside from the increasing your trips to the toilet, fiber keeps your stomach fuller for a longer period of time and increases the appetite, suppressing cholecystokinin, renamed by the YOU medical pair as Crucial Craving Killer (CCK)-like signals. YOU doctors recommend that you keep breakfast food regular and simple such as oatmeal, cereal, whole grains and fruit.
• Use nine-inch plates. Yes, it is like tricking yourself, but it works. Reports say that if you are served fatty food in large containers, you will end up eating 30 percent more than when you are served the same food in a smaller container. “Change your serving plates to the nine-inch variety to give yourself the visual and psychological clue that you’re full when your physical appetite has been sated. That’s important because studies show that visual clues help determine how full you are, in that you may not feel satisfied until your plate is clean, no matter how large the plate is,” the YOU doctors warn. Most value deals in restaurants and fast-food chains include upsizing or jumbo servings. One way to counter that is to share. The easiest guide, said YOU, is that one serving of food should not equal the container (such as one box of popcorn) but the size of your fist! • Take three glasses of green tea. This will make green tea lovers like me love it more. The book reports that three glasses of green tea a day have reduced body weight and waist circumference by five percent in three months. Cathechins in the green tea inhibit the breakdown of fats and the production of NF-kappa B. The latter is what YOU doctors call a frat-house substance that triggers a chain of events that causes inflammation in the body and prevents the transport of glucose to the cells triggering hunger. One strategy the book proposed is to take a lot of anti-inflammatory foods such as green tea every day to counteract the effects of obesity (which the authors referred to as a disease of inflammation).
• Drink a beer a day. For those who don’t enjoy green tea, beer is an option. Caution, though: limit it to only one drink a day. The bitter compounds from hops in beer activate the peroxisome proliferators-activated receptors or what YOU doctors called Perfectly Powerful Abdominal Regulators (PPARs). Once activated, PPARs decrease glucose and insulin levels as well as cholesterol and inflammation. They say that even if you eat too much for a meal, if the PPARs are running the show, then the negative effects are far damaging. Turmeric, a ginger-like plant with curcumin as an active ingredient, also activates PPARs to reduce inflammation. Just add a pinch to food for flavor.
• Go fish. Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils increase the number of PPARs that reduce inflammation. YOU doctors recommended consumption of three four-ounce servings of fish every week or a two-gram fish oil capsule a day or an ounce of walnuts a day. YOU doctors were quick to explain that saturated fats increase inflammatory properties while trans fat undermines effects of the omega-3s. So steam, bake, boil or broil your fish instead of frying them. And if you need to, then use monounsaturated fat like olive oil or canola.
• Add red peppers to your breakfast. Ever wondered why Thai people or those who eat spicy food are normally thin? Well, this could be one clue. According to the YOU authors, red pepper, when eaten early during the day, decreases food intake later in the day. The ingredient capsaicin is being given the credit for decreasing overall calorie intake and for increasing metabolism. So why not add red peppers to your breakfast omelet, the book suggests. Half a teaspoon or more of cinnamon every day enhances the satiety center in the brain while also reducing blood sugar and cholesterol levels. You may sprinkle it on cereal and oatmeal (the only way I can eat mine), on your toast or smoothie.
• Drink up your coffee. The Nescafé commercial proclaims that coffee is one of our daily sources of antioxidants. It is full of polyphenols and is a great low-calorie fluid when you have cravings (just don’t mind the coffee shop waitress when she suggests a pastry to go with your coffee). They say that
• Walk and get fidgety. The authors chided most people for making excuses about their sedentary lives. With the YOU plan, all you need to do is walk continuously for just 30 minutes every day. If you have a pedometer, log about 10,000 steps accumulated throughout the day. The more you move, the more calories you burn throughout the day. Instead of making excuses as to why you are not working out, make every excuse to move about. Walk down the office corridor to talk to a colleague rather than just calling over the intercom. Get yourself a glass of water from the pantry rather than asking your staff for one. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Stand up and walk around while on your mobile or cordless phone. Shake your leg, circle your toes, do shoulder rolls, and tap your fingers while sitting on your office desk or while caught in a traffic jam.
• Sleep seven to eight hours. One fact that Dr. Oz revealed on Oprah is that getting enough sleep keeps you thin. “That’s because when your body doesn’t get the seven or eight hours of sleep it needs every night to get rejuvenated, it needs to find ways to compensate for neurons not secreting the normal amounts of serotonin or dopamine. The way it typically does that is by craving sugary foods that will give you an immediate release of serotonin or dopamine. The lack of sleep throws off your entire system — even increasing your appetite. Lack of sleep can become an even bigger factor as you age. When you get older, the pineal gland in your brain produces less of the sleep hormone melatonin, resulting in a craving for carbohydrates,” the authors explain. So next time you crave extra-sweet doughnuts, check how much sleep you have clocked in.
• Take 20 peanuts 20 minutes before meals. Notice how some restaurants serve peanuts as appetizers? They have the right idea, according to YOU; but rather than increasing appetite, they actually make you eat less. “If you have a little of the right kinds of fat just before you eat, you can trick your hormonal system by sending the signal to your brain that you’re full. If you eat a little fat 20 minutes before your meal (70 calories or so of fat in the form of six walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts), you’ll stimulate the production of CCK, which will both communicate with your brain and slow your stomach from emptying to keep you feeling full. That way, you’ll be able to sit down for a meal and eat for pleasure, not for hunger — which is one way to ensure you’ll eat less,” YOU doctors explain. CCK release and the reduction of ghrelin (the hormone that makes you want to eat, gorge, and binge on a feast) take about 20 minutes to happen and take about 65 calories of fat to stimulate.
The above are just teasers from the book that offers not only the whys of obesity but a lifelong game plan on how to win the battle of the midsection bulge. The YOU doctors promise “following our plan, you can expect to drop up to two inches from your waist (or a dress size) within two weeks and see results steadily after. While the end goal is what many of us look for, we believe that the path you choose to get there is what really dictates whether you make it or not,” Oz and Roizen challenged.
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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph.
