Nutrition and Diets News
Health Buzz: Junk Food Diet Helped Nutrition Professor Shed Pounds
Nutrition Professor Sheds 27 Pounds on Junk Food Diet
Twinkies, Oreos, and Doritos—the new weight-loss diet? Well, a steady stream of junk food worked for Mark Haub, a Kansas State University nutrition professor who, after two months, shed a hefty 27 pounds, CNN reports. But he’s not only slimmer. He reduced his body mass index from the overweight category to normal, his bad cholesterol decreased while the good increased, and his blood pressure is just fine. But Haub didn’t embark on this eating plan to live out a childhood dream. He wanted to prove a simple point to his students: Any diet can produce weight loss—it’s just a matter of consuming fewer calories than you burn, Haub told U.S. News’s Hanna Dubansky in September. Haub went from ingesting 2,600 calories a day to 1,800. “If weight loss is the ultimate goal,” he asked his students, “does it matter how I achieve it?” More than 80 percent of what he ate was prepackaged and coated in chocolate, supplemented only minimally by a daily multivitamin, a little whole milk, and a small serving of vegetables. (Whole grains, fruit, and dietary fiber were largely off limits.) “I’m losing weight and my cholesterol is improving by eating those foods,” Haub told Dubansky. “Is it really soda and chips that are making people obese, or how much of them they eat?” Ultimately, Haub said he hopes his experiment will push his students to think about their diets and glean that “moderation and variety are key to nutrition.”
In September, Haub also provided U.S. News with one of his daily junk food menus.
From: A Day in the Life of a Junk Food Dieter
Breakfast
1 double espresso, black
2 cups Kellogg’s Corn Pops
1 cup whole milk
1 Centrum Advanced Formula multivitamin
Total calories: 376
Lunch
1 Hostess Twinkie
1 Little Debbie Star Crunch
1 Muscle Milk Protein Shake
Total calories: 540
Snack
1 Hostess Twinkie
Total calories: 150
Dinner
1 Little Debbie Zebra Cake
1 brownie (Duncan Hines mix)
3-4 baby carrots
1 Muscle Milk Protein Shake
Total calories: 688
Snack
6 chips, Cool Ranch Doritos
Total calories: 75
Total Calories: 1,829
On nutrition: What we don’t know
In baseball and elections, we don’t always know what we don’t know. I did not know, for example, that it would be so much fun to watch the San Francisco Giants win the World Series. And I don’t know if elections will ever be as respectfully joyful as baseball games.
In matters of diabetes and nutrition, we often do not know what we do not know. Here are some comments I frequently hear:
“I did not know that …
… blood sugar (glucose) levels change throughout the day.” Glucose is the energy our body derives from the food we eat. It naturally rises in the blood after a meal and falls a few hours after we eat. When blood sugar levels rise too high after meals or stay too high during the day (a condition called diabetes) nerves and body organs are damaged.
… I should be counting the “total carbohydrates” in my food instead of just looking at “sugar” on the food label.” Sugar is just one type of carbohydrate that makes blood sugars go up rapidly. Counting the “total carbohydrates” gives a better clue to how a food will affect your blood glucose levels.
… fiber is a carbohydrate, too.” And — by definition — it is a carbohydrate that the body does not absorb. That’s one reason why a high carbohydrate food that is also high in fiber (such as dried beans) is a good choice.
… it’s a good idea to check my blood sugar levels before and after meals if I have diabetes.” Both tests give valuable clues to how well your diet, exercise, and medication plans are working.
… the amount and type of fat in my diet is as important as the sugar.” Diets high in saturated or trans fats can damage arteries and organs and aggravate the body’s ability to regulate blood sugars.
… taking care of my feet is as important as taking care of my diet.” Diabetes can affect the nerves and circulation in the feet. Even a small cut or blister left untreated can lead to big time problems. Regular foot exams are a routine part of diabetes care.
Telemedicine may help individuals with type 2 diabetes improve their diet
Type 2 diabetes requires significant amounts of dietary planning and continued consumption of healthy foods. However, due to the struggling economy, low wages and high unemployment, many individuals with the condition are finding it difficult to maintain a healthy diet and to stay in touch with their physicians.
A new study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior has found that telemedicine, which allows patients to communicate with their doctors electronically, may help solve some of these problems.
Researchers from the State University of New York in Syracuse said that as many as 10 percent of adults with diabetes consider money to be a problem when it comes to sticking to a nutritious diet. However, after a round of counseling via telemedicine that covered less expensive ways they can stick to dietary recommendations, researchers found that a majority of participants improved their diets.
“This study demonstrated that among participants classified as both food secure and mildly insecure, individuals were usually able to follow the dietitian’s advice,” said Ruth Weinstock, who led the investigation. “This finding suggests that telemedical nutrition support services have the potential to be an important adjunct for primary care providers whose patients have poor access to the services of dietitians.”