As mentioned in our previous blog this week, Thanksgiving doesn't have to be the start of a season of calorie imbalance. Instead, we encourage you to focus on family, friends, physical activity, and good food in moderation over the winter holidays. Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? Until you are faced with a table filled with tempting foods, that is! Here are some tips to help keep you on track:

Drinks

• If you must have alcohol and/or sugary drinks, limit yourself to one. Egg nog with heavy cream, sugar, and rum can contain 300+ calories per cup!
• Choose water with lemon or diet drinks; this will allow a few more calories for your favorite foods.

Snacks

• Select fruits and vegetables, when available; or offer to bring a colorful produce tray with low-fat dip.
• Calories in nuts, crackers and cheese, and other high-fat snacks can quickly add up. Put a small portion on a plate or napkin and spend your time before the meal catching up with friends and family.

Dinner

• Sample only what you really like; there's no need to scoop the sweet potatoes onto your plate if they aren't your favorite.
• Pile on the juicy turkey (without skin) and vegetables without a lot of butter/sauce.
• Take very small portions of high-calorie foods (like stuffing with sausage or mashed potatoes with butter), eat slowly, and enjoy every bite.
• Skip the dinner roll - you can have bread and butter anytime!

Dessert

• Ask for a half piece of your favorite dessert and put your fork down between bites.
• Many of the calories in pies and tarts come from the crust; leaving a little behind will lessen the calorie load.
• If you're too full for dessert, don't eat it! Ask the host to pack you a small piece for tomorrow. Or, just have coffee after the big meal and call it satisfying supper!

What other healthy holiday eating tips can you share?

It’s only three days away!  That day of extreme gluttony and couch cruising that kicks off a season of calorie imbalance.  Unfortunately, the resulting extra calories get stored as body fat and add to the extra pounds that catalyze many New Year’s resolutions. 

But this year can be different – starting with today!!

No, we are not going to be the food police and tell you to eat only salad and drink water on Thanksgiving.  Still, be mindful that a typical turkey dinner with all the trimmings can be than 3,000 or more.  Add to that the pre-meal snacks and late evening leftover refrigerator raid and you might be eating 2-3 day’s calories in a single day!  Here’s how to put calorie balance on your holiday “to do” list this year.

Calories In

Leading up to and a few days after the big feast, cut down a bit on your normal food/calorie intake.  Now don’t go overboard and show up to Thanksgiving semi-starved.  Simply reduce your portion sizes, especially of high-fat and high-sugar foods, add in more vegetables to help you stave off hunger, drink plenty of water or non-calorie beverages, and limit the amount of fat and sugar you add to foods at the table.  Tune into the Stand Up & Eat blog on Wednesday for ideas on curbing your calories at Grandma’s, Aunt Ann’s, or wherever you will be sharing thanks and good food.

Calories Out

Simply just move.  Look for every opportunity to stand, walk, take the stairs, park farther away, bicycle to do errands, whatever will get your body burning extra calories.  On Thanksgiving Day,

• Catch up with relatives and friends on a walk before or after the big meal.
• Start a new family tradition by doing the local Turkey Trot fun run/race.  Here in Dallas, over 30,000 (yes, that’s 30,000!) men, women, and children walk and trot their way to an extra slice of pecan pie.  How many calories will this crowd burn on Thursday?  About 16.5 million!!
• Play outdoor games (touch football was my family’s favorite pre-meal warm-up).
• Enjoy the wintery weather with snowshoes, skis, skates, or warm boots.

Then keep the moving momentum you build up this week going.  To keep burning calories through New Year’s day and beyond:

• Hit the malls – you may not plan on buying much this holiday, but shopping malls offer a warm, lighted, safe, and festive place to be active.
• Walk to your neighbor’s for a holiday gathering.
• Invite friends and neighbors to join you on a “jingle bell” walk/run through your neighborhood to take in the holiday lights and sights.
• Take dogs at your local animal shelter for walks, thereby relieving the staff so they can enjoy time with their families.

Finally, don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself to try to lose weight this holiday.  Simply not gaining weight will put you way ahead of most people when New Year’s Eve rolls around.

What ways to you keep calorie balance on your holiday list?

What will it take for Americans to learn that more isn't always better? Whether it's more food for a set price or more money borrowed at a low rate, Americans have the hardest time seeing that what looks like a "good deal" in the short term, often leads to a bad situation in the long term.

In a previous blog we admitted that the cost of low-calorie foods is increasing more than the cost of calorie-dense foods. And we'll also admit that all-you-can-eat buffets provide platefuls of food for one low price. But, will we suggest that during these hard economic times Americans throw out all they've learned about choosing healthy foods and settle for what's cheapest? No way! We advocate for eating the right amounts of healthy foods - and this can be done on any budget.

Start by determining how many calories you actually need each day (use SU&E's Calorie Needs Calculator). Then, focus on meeting these needs through foods you can prepare at home. Cooking doesn't have to take tons of time, and by doing it yourself you will save money and often have leftovers that can be frozen or refrigerated for future meals.

Here are some of SU&E's favorite web sites for finding easy, healthy recipes:

• Cooking Light 
• EatingWell 
• Mayo Clinic Healthy Recipes Center 

Don't be misled by restaurants' "all you can" marketing messages. You don't need more food. You need the right amounts of healthy foods. If you still feel the need to get you're monies worth of something, invest in an all-you-can-workout gym or all-you-can-use treadmill!

A recent study has linked NDVI with childhood obesity.  What’s NDVI?  An exotic virus?  Perhaps a newly discovered DNA sequence?

NDVI is an acronym for “normalized difference vegetation index. “ No, it doesn’t have anything to do with vegging out in front of the TV, though as we have discussed in an earlier blog,  television watching is associated with overweight and obesity.   Rather, it’s a very sophisticated way of estimating the amount of vegetation in an area using satellite images. 

Researchers recently used NDVI to assess the “greenness” of the county that encompasses  Indianapolis, Indiana.¹  They also collected body mass index (BMI) data of children who lived in the county and who were patients in a primary care clinic network.  The BMI data were collected at two time points about two years apart and were transformed for statistical reasons to BMI z-scores.  This is a more sensitive way of assessing change in body composition in growing children.  Additional data used in the analyses included the density of population in the geographic area being studied, racial/ethnic status, gender, and health insurance status as a proxy for socioeconomic status.

The study population was mostly economically disadvantaged African-American children and youth.  In this group and in this location, researchers found that the higher the NDVI score (i.e., the more “green” ) the lower the BMI z-score at the two-year  time point.  Also, the more green the neighborhood environment, the less likely the children's BMI z-scores were to increase over the two-year period.  These results add to the literature that green living spaces are associated with positive health measures in adults and children.

Physical activity is the obvious first thing people might think is the contributing factor in the slowing of overweight and obesity development in this and other similar studies.  And that is likely true.  But there are other factors that may be involved such as a predisposition for families who practice other healthier habits to select greener neighborhoods in which to live.  Or a community spirit among residents located closer to green areas to take better care of their neighborhood thereby deterring crime and hence, making parents more comfortable letting their kids use the green spaces.

Whatever the reasons, “going green” is not just a good slogan for protecting the Earth. It may also be a good mantra for creating neighborhoods that promote healthy weights in our children. 

How “green” is your neighborhood?

¹ Bell JF, Wilson JS, and Liu GC.  Neighborhood greenness and 2-year changes in body mass index of children and youth.  American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2008;35(6):547-553)

Want your kids/grandkids to go for the leafy greens and whole grains? Then show them by filling your grocery cart with these health foods!

A new study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine¹ found that children as young as 2 years old form eating preferences based on their parents' food choices. In the study, 120 children (ages 2 to 6) were asked to select foods from a miniature grocery store, which included a variety of foods and beverages classified as: least healthy, somewhat healthy, and mostly healthy. The study also asked the childrens' parents about how often they purchased the specific foods in the store.

What did they find?

• 70.8% of the children purchased foods that were categorized as least healthy choices.
• Only 10.8% of the children had shopping baskets consisting of the healthiest choices!
• On average, children in the group with the least healthy choices purchased the same number of healthier and less healthy products, whereas children in the group with the most healthy choices purchased 5 healthier products for each less healthy product selected.
• The healthfulness of the children's total purchases were significantly predicted by their parents' purchasing categorization.

The researchers concluded that, "children begin to mimic their parents' food choices at a very young age, even before they are able to fully appreciate the implications of these choices." Thus, taking children to the grocery store and showing them that the family buys healthy foods can instill healthy food purchasing habits for children of all ages.

What do you think? Are you able to survive the aisles when you have your little ones along? If so, how can/do you teach your kids about healthy eating while at the grocery store? 

¹ Sutherland, L.A. (2008).Like parent, like child: Child food and beverage choices during role play. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 162(11), 1063-1069.

Physical activity is generally insufficient by itself to bring about clinically significant weight loss. 

Huh?

You lose weight when your body is in negative calorie balance meaning that you eat fewer calories than your body needs.  You can create a calorie deficit by:

1. Decreasing the calories eaten only
2. Increasing the calories you burn through exercise only
3. Decreasing calories eaten AND increasing calories burned

According to the Advisory Committee for the Physical Activity Guidelines 2008 report¹, it is tough to lose weight only doing the second option.  That’s because it takes quite a bit of physical activity to create the large calorie deficit that will yield significant weight loss.  On the other hand, relatively simple changes in food intake can create a large energy decrease.

For example, a 160 pound person who wanted to lose weight could skip the cola drink (12 ounces = 150 calories) or walk 36 minutes to burn off the same number of calories as the soft drink.  The same person could also not have the large order of French fries (saving 540 calories) or walk for over two hours to burn off the same amount of calories.  That’s a lot of walking!  Who has the time???

This doesn’t mean that people who want to lose weight – or keep from gaining weight – should give up on exercise.  Quite the contrary.  First, regardless of weight status or weight outcomes, meeting the base recommendation for weekly physical activity (150 minutes of moderate activity, 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or a combination of the two) will yield significant health benefits. 

If you want to prevent weight gain or perhaps lose a small amount of weight, the Advisory Committee report recommends doing 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity a week.  If you have lost a large amount of weight, then it is likely that you will need to do more than 300 minutes per week to keep the weight off.  Of course, everyone’s body is different so you may be able to maintain your weight loss with less or more physical activity.

The bottom line?  The best way to lose weight is to decrease calories eaten and increase calories burned in exercise.   To keep the weight off, you will need to find the calorie balance that works best for you, but it will likely include a fair amount of physical activity.

¹ Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008.

New York City has launched a new campaign to encourage New Yorkers to use the calorie counts for food items on menus and menu boards that the city's chain restaurants are now required to post.  This summer, the federal court upheld the rule that requires chain restaurants in New York City to post calorie information, and the New York City Health Department wants to be sure that people take advantage of it. To do this, they are posting five ads in New York City subway cars until the end of the year. The ads (click here to view them) are designed to show how quickly food calories add up and how deceptive appearances can be. Because many people are unaware that the typical adult needs 2000 calories a day (or less) to maintain a steady weight, the ads provide this information along with a photo and calorie count for some common on-the-go foods. Thus, people who haven't received a specific daily calorie needs amount from http://www.standupandeat.org/ can still make sense of the calorie amounts on menus and menu boards. After all, what good is knowing that a tuna sub sandwich has 530 calories if someone doesn't know how many calories he/she should be eating over the course of the day?  

New York City Health Department surveys have shown that when restaurant patrons use calorie information in deciding what to order, they average nearly 100 fewer calories in each meal purchased. The Health Department estimates that posting calories on menu boards and menus will reduce the number of people who suffer from obesity by 150,000 over the next five years, preventing more than 30,000 cases of diabetes!

While it's too bad that other cities haven't caught on to the calorie and health connection yet, we at Stand Up & Eat are working hard to help all Americans determine their calorie needs (click here for the Stand Up & Eat Daily Calorie Needs Calculator) and discover resources for finding calorie information (click here for a searchable web site). Please help us by forwarding this blog post on to your family members and friends! 

Where can you find all there is to know about the health impact of physical activity?  In the 683-page Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008, a comprehensive compilation of the review of the current scientific literature in exercise and physical activity.  The document is the end product of a year’s work by a blue ribbon panel of scientists who combed through thousands of research articles to tease out the relation of physical activity to physical and mental health outcomes, to quantify just how much physical activity is needed to provide health benefits, and to identify areas in which more research is needed.  The committee’s report provided the basis for the recently released, first ever, Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans that was discussed earlier in this blog.

In the Advisory Committee’s report you will find a summary of the relation of physical activity to:

• All-cause mortality
• Cardiocascular disease
• Diabetes and other metabolic diseases
• Energy balance
• Bone and joint
• Functional health
• Cancer
• Mental health

Also included are extensive reviews of the literature on physical activity and youth, the safety of physical activity, and physical activity in special population such as pregnant and postpartum women and people with physical or cognitive disabilities. 

Of particular interest to the Stand Up & Eat outreach web site is the role of physical activity in energy balance.  We will address that component of the report in-depth in next week’s blog.

In the meantime, how could you use the Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report in your life or work?