Author: dr-j

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Most of us are familiar with the song “Tomorrow” from the Broadway musical “Annie,” based on the comic strip “Little Orphan Annie.” The opening phrase, “The sun’ll come out tomorrow,” seems to hold out an optimistic vision, yet the song ends with the cautionary line, “Tomorrow. You’re always a day away.”

Consequences of Putting Things Off

I lost a good friend recently. Mercifully, he passed quickly from a massive stroke, unlike Tom, the best teacher I ever had, who lingered almost a year, paralyzed before his death. Also, my good friend was too young to die, and his death shocked the community. In fact, he was overweight, ate poorly and had other behavioral habits that do not bode well for a long healthy life. I’m sure he thought about improving his behaviors tomorrow.

I have another friend whom I’ve written about before. I have talked to him many times about his unhealthy lifestyle. He is a good man. Always listened intently and agreed with my counseling with the two-word phrase, “I know.” Over the years I’ve watched him go from a well-conditioned athlete to a morbidly obese man with two knee replacements. He still listens to my pleas for change and replies, “I know.” I’m sure he will do something, tomorrow.

Friendly Advice

I was playing tennis yesterday with a close friend. He is a wonderful tennis player, and I value the time we spend together. He has had a difficult year health wise. He had a TIA (mini stroke) several months ago, which necessitated an operation on the carotid artery to hopefully prevent a recurrence. His blood pressure is too high, and he is overweight. We have talked about his needing to lose weight, decrease the salt in his diet, increase his physical conditioning and several other health related behaviors that he can do to improve going forward. His doctors are treating him with a combination of several drugs. Whenever we talk about any of this, he seems to understand the need for behavioral changes, but I am not seeing any. He talks about how he will start doing things in the spring when the weather improves. It was 70 degrees today. He said that he is avoiding the fitness center because of fear of catching a cold there. He told me that for the first time two months ago. I suggested he buy an aerobic machine for his home. He said he should. He seems to feel that he can do all of this tomorrow.

There is a story about a famous, powerful man. It seems that one day he called his gardener to his office and told him he would like to have an olive tree and asked if he could do that tomorrow. The gardener said he would, but cautioned his employer that it would take several years for the olive tree to bear fruit. “In that case,” his employer said, “Plant it today.” When it comes to making those important health related changes that you know you need to make, I implore you: Plant it today!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Plant It Today

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Front-of-Package Food Labels: Public Health or Propaganda?

Ever since I heard the maxim, “The more important it says it is on the outside of the envelope, the less important it is on the inside of the envelope,” from Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes, I looked at all my mail and found it to be very accurate.

Marian Nestle PhD, MPH recently had a commentary article in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association where she has applied Andy’s observation to the front-of-package food labels.

Her article, co-authored by David Ludwig MD, PhD, discusses the history of food labeling from the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, which prohibited food labels from bearing statements that were “false or misleading in any particular” to the FDA Modernization Act of 1997, through the current state of package labeling with its “bewildering array of claims for increasingly remote health benefits.”

Their conclusions

Doctors Nestle and Ludwig feel that the current practices of front-of-package food labeling may mislead the public in several ways:

(1) They feel that few, if any, of these claims can be verified.

Although specific dietary components may be linked to improved health outcomes, food products containing that dietary component might not have the same effect.

(2) Claims based on individual nutritional factors are misleading.

Front-of-package health claims usually only focus on one ingredient: ignoring the presence of potentially unhealthful aspects (e.g., the sugar or salt content in a prepared breakfast cereal).

(3) Even if the front-of-package labels were restricted to nutrient content, they still can be deceptive by presenting information out of context.

For example, an 8-ounce serving of a sugared beverage may have fewer calories than a 1-ounce serving of nuts.

(4) Using the term, “Healthier” for a processed food does not necessarily mean healthy.

By manipulating snack food ingredients by replacing fat or sugar with refined starch, for example, manufacturers can improve the rating score without a meaningful improvement in nutritional quality.

(5) Front-of-package claims produce conflicts of interest.

Without an FDA specific dictate for allowable claims for each food product, the food industry’s business of selling the product will undermine the educational purpose of labeling.

Their Recommendations

If health claims are allowed on food packages, they should be regulated more strictly according to rigorous evidence based on national standards.

Because of the difficulty in doing this, an outright ban on all front-of-package claims would seem more prudent. This would hopefully encourage the public to eat whole or minimally processed foods and to read the ingredient lists on these processed foods.

My Thoughts

I may have glanced at the outside of envelopes before opening them pre-Andy Rooney, but now if the outside emphasizes the importance of the content, I just throw them in the recycle bin.

I really minimize my purchasing of processed foods, and when I do, I first turn the package over and look at the nutritional information on the back, followed by reading the ingredient list. At that point, I make the decision to either put it in the cart or back on the shelf.

One of the editors at CalorieLab, Sarah White, had a series not that long ago on what I’m eating now. As you can see, she’s all about eating non-processed, healthy and whole foods.

After all, rules 5-7 in the Dr. J rules for healthy eating are 5) If it comes in a box or wrapper, it’s bad for you. 6) If you can’t pronounce its ingredients, it’s bad for you. 7) If it only has one ingredient, it’s good for you.

I may have to add one more rule to the 10 rules: The more healthy the front-of-package label says the product is on the outside, the less healthy it is in your inside.

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Front-of-Package Health Claims

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Early on in my career as an educator, I learned the importance of effective communication. It didn’t matter what wonderful knowledge I may have had to impart, if the patients or the students, or my colleagues couldn’t relate to my presentation of the material, it would be like the lonely tree falling in the forest.

I recently read about a new book, co-authored by André-A. Lafrance, a communications professor at the Université de Montréal, and François Lambotte of the Université libre de Bruxelles, on the principles of effective communication. It seems that too much communication is as bad as too little. The authors feel that people communicate poorly and excessively when they exchange just for the sake of communicating.

“There is a lot of information but very little communication,” says Lafrance. “Communication requires interaction between the communicator and the receiver, and the message must be tailored to the reaction of the other.”

The book has three premises for effective communication:

1. All communication aims to bring about change in the receiver, whether a change in knowledge, attitudes or practices.
2. All change comprises a challenge to the receiver due to their lack of expertise, the amount of effort required to understand or their questioning of the information.
3. The communicator must have the ability to convince the receiver to make the needed change.

It’s like baby bears porridge. Not too much, not too little, just the right amount to get the message across. I had a personal experience with porridge one day when I went back to my old karate studio and had a conversation with my Sensei.

Visiting Sensei

As I walked into the karate studio that day I felt I had come a long way from that first time as a white belt, arriving early to an empty room, sweeping the floor unasked, as I waited for the other students to arrive. I no longer lived in that city as my schooling had taken me to another state, but I was seeing my parents over the summer break and I wanted to visit my old karate school. Not much had changed; it still had that clean crisp feeling of a newly sharpened knife: simple, practical and alert. As I dressed in the changing room, I proudly tied that same black belt that this teacher had given me, though now, as it was not my way to add additional stripes, I had attained higher levels of that coveted black belt.

As the class began, I was no longer at the back of the room, but initially leading the students in the basic warm up exercises before bowing to the Sensei and taking my place at the head of the class. It was a good day to return to my karate roots.

At the end of the formal class, I asked my Sensei if he wanted to spar with me. I had come a long way since he first tied that black belt around my waist, and I felt very confident in the abilities I had learned and proven in other karate schools and tournaments, and I had the trophies to show for my skills.

Sparring With Sensei

The Sensei accepted my challenge.

We went to the center of the empty floor as the other students sat against the walls and waited to see what would happen. We bowed and assumed our fighting stances. I was ready.

I attacked!

I remember seeing him blur off to my left, then the room turned upside down! After a few strikes, it was over. I had watched him fight other students before, and although he was usually a very mild man, I had seen him do his share of damage to others. As I got back to my feet to acknowledge my defeat, I remember thinking how I was physically unhurt, even after the apparent violence of his attacks. It was the best defeat I ever had! To this day I can’t really explain it, but I felt great.

After we bowed to signify the end of the conflict he said, “It is not appropriate for a lower rank to challenge a higher rank to fight,” and that was that.

He definitely applied those three premises, as he changed my attitude, he effectively answered my challenge, and he convinced me to learn a needed lesson on that day from this man of few words.

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

A Man of Few Words

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

In his famous anthem, Alice’s Restaurant, Arlo Guthrie tells the story about his adventure with the Selective Service System. Near the end of the song, he is asked the classic question, “Kid, have you rehabilitated yourself?”

It seems being rehabilitated is all the rage now-a-days. Of course, recently, Tiger Woods put rehab squarely in the public’s eye, but many others are also doing the rehab thing. Charlie Sheen and his wife, Brooke Mueller, are both in rehab for “undisclosed reasons.” Although, it is also being reported as “preventative rehab.” I’m all for prevention.

The long list of famous people in the news who have been in rehab may have first started long ago with Betty Ford. She was being treated for alcoholism, and now the center is named after her.

Have you noticed some of the names of these popular rehab centers? Tiger Woods went to the Gentle Path Rehabilitation Facility. Many of these centers have soft and kind names like that.

I thought about opening up a rehab center at one time. I envisioned having a group of people including MDs, psychologists, therapists, trainers, nutritionists, etc., all working together to help the patient/client find their way. Being from the Rambo psychiatrist school of thinking, my original name for this center was The GYST Center, as in Get Your $hit Together Center!

What Is Rehabilitation?

Rehabilitation, as related to matters of physical and emotional well being, refers to any process that seeks to restore the patient to their previous level of health. At its core, rehabilitation has the goal of assisting individuals to achieve the highest quality of life and health as possible.

Addiction rehab is a form of retraining that also is likely to involve both physical and emotional therapy as part of the rehabilitation process. This can involve helping the addict to deal with physical cravings and the emotional bonds that entwine the addict to his or her habit.

Often, centers that deal with these types of problems actively measure the progress of each patient. In addition, they do their best to provide an atmosphere that is welcoming, as well as encouraging for the client.

Rehab for Eating Disorders

In the area of health and fitness, the use of rehabilitation to treat an eating disorder can be a savior for some individuals afflicted with this condition. Though not as likely to be all over the news as Tiger Woods’ sex addiction (something, which I do not agree is an addiction in his case, by the way), eating disorders affect many more individuals, and in my opinion, cause much more damage to people’s overall lives and health. If you have this problem, it would be in your best interest to seek treatment. I’m sure you can find a kind and supportive center near your area that will help you, and I implore you to consider this option. If you are concerned about maintaining your privacy, there are many well-established centers all over the country where you can go and your anonymity would be protected. The National Eating Disorders Association is a rehab organization dedicated to providing education, resources and support to those affected by eating disorders.

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Have You Rehabilitated Yourself?

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

“Burn up to 500 calories in 30 minutes.” The words jumped off the advertisement at me. As a runner, I did a quick calculation. 500 calories is five miles of running. Do it in 30 minutes. That’s five, 6-minute miles. That’s a pretty hard run! I don’t think this unnamed circuitous company is being straight with me.

Just Tell Me the Truth

I’ve long been an advocate of truth in advertising. You don’t want to know how many times I’ve just yelled at the TV, “Just tell me the truth!”

I found an interesting study, done by an independent body, evaluating the usual calorie burn by women at this curlicued facility. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse — in conjunction with the American Council on Exercise (ACE) — monitored 15 healthy women aged 25 to 56 through two arched workouts. They concluded that each training session burned an average of 184 calories, with a range of 233 calories for the highest value, and 150 calories for the lowest value. Their bottom line was that the typical catenary workout burned about as many calories as one would acquire by eating half a donut. I guess the good news is that if you try to balance your calorie intake with calorie usage, you won’t have to be lamenting that you ate the whole thing.

Exaggeration of Calorie Usage Claims

It is all too common for exercise programs to exaggerate their calorie usage claims. After all, they are a business, and they are trying to sell their product as a removal tool for your product. (One of the reasons I’ve always suspected the scales at grocery stores weigh us
less so we will buy more food.)

It’s not just with a weight loss/ fitness business, almost every individual aerobic machine, exercise class, or fitness DVD or tool will make calorie burn claims that are inflated. It’s important to remember that the calorie counts on machines are just estimates based on the makers’ standard, supposedly for the average sized male. They do not account for the size, muscle mass or experience of the exerciser. It is estimated that cardio machines can overestimate calories burned by from 10 percent to as much as 30 percent. Remembering the initial example of running 5 miles in 30 minutes, a better tool is using your perception of exertion based on experience and this will probably be your best guide. I know that from my experience with running. Whether I time my run or run for distance, I can make a very accurate estimate without a watch or using a measured course.

A similar thing with exaggerated and inaccurate numbers also occurs in aviation that every pilot must be aware of, since each airplane has official performance data that are considered accurate for the type of planes we fly. The problem is if we average pilots expect to achieve the same numbers for takeoff, cruise and landing distances that the professionals did when establishing them, we will at best be disappointed, and at worst, we will have a very bad day.

It’s Not Only About the Calorie Numbers

I think the key here is to not get too focused on numbers, unless possibly the scale, a tape measure or the size and fit of your favorite pair of jeans. The estimated calorie numbers do not mean anything if you are not losing weight or inches. In addition, I do not put much stock in all the added muscle you are building with an exercise program in the short term. Muscle is hard to build, and takes time to accomplish. If something is amiss, it is probably due to an over-estimation of calorie burn or an under-estimation of calorie intake. Because of this I’ve rarely focused too much on calorie numbers, except in the beginning of my fitness journey when I educated myself on the basics of food and calorie contents, and now when a new food product or menu item appears. If I didn’t see the results I was looking for, I’ve always figured I needed to exercise a little more or eat a little less.

If you feel that keeping track of the numbers is necessary for your successful efforts, I would suggest that in the beginning you under-estimate the calorie usage and over-estimate your calorie intake, then adjust prn (as needed) depending on the results you are
experiencing.

One of the things that often derails weight loss attempts is being disappointed with the results of what we feel are sincere efforts. Not falling for exaggerated claims or inaccurate numbers, and staying focused on realistic goals will help you keep on keeping on.

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J Discusses Burning up to 500 Calories in 30 Minutes — Is it Possible?

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

The Top Ten

1. They have a high BMI. This is the number one reason people argue against the BMI.

2. They think it’s normal to put on a few pounds. The BMI counteracts peoples flawed thinking.

3. They are in denial. Denial is possibly the strongest of all the defense mechanisms, or psychologically disordered strategies that people use to cope with reality and maintain self-image.

4. They have a food addiction. Given the choice to believe that their high BMI is dangerous, people with an addiction will dismiss their BMI rather than face reality.

5. They use the straw man argument, where you change the topic and argue against that. The BMI is not a beauty contest, yet they argue that people look good with a high BMI. Therefore, it’s a bad measurement.

6. They call the BMI statistical origin nonsensical, yet ignore all the statistical data that supports and shows it works regardless if the measurement design, i.e. height-weight, makes no sense. The bottom line of a high BMI is increased morbidity and mortality in almost every large scale study, except possibly for a very small increased BMI in people over 70 years of age.

7. They can’t get insurance with their high BMI. Of course they will cost the insurance company much more money than they will ever pay for insurance, either immediately or later, thus raising the rates for the rest of us.

8. They think they are an athlete, and since a lot of real athletes have a high BMI, then theirs must be OK. Many athletes do not have a high BMI, especially in sports where significant endurance is important. Did you know that in the average football game, the “athletes” actual playing time is less than 15 minutes total?

9. They saw a report that said according to the BMI charts, both Tom Cruise and LeBron James are obese, and they are fine. In reality, neither Tom Cruise ( BMI 25.1-26) nor LeBron James (BMI 27.5) are obese. They both fall in the overweight category. LeBron is a professional athlete, and Cruise is no longer Maverick from Top Gun.

10. They have a blog on the Internet with a high proportion of the readership having a high BMI and do not want to be honest about the BMI or their BMI because they fear the loss of their followers as both an ego and economic decline.

One Time Correct

Possibly, if you are an athlete or a dedicated weight trainer, your BMI will be higher than the normal range.

If, for example, we look at the Bell shaped curve of statistics, 99.7 percent lie within three standard deviations. Using this data, assuming 3 out of every 1000 individuals is either a significant athlete or a serious weight trainer, both with a high muscle mass and low body fat, then the BMI is valid for the other 997 individuals.

If you feel like disagreeing with this column, please include which number applies to your thinking. Thank you.

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

The Top 10 reasons Why People Incorrectly Think the BMI is Wrong, and One Time When They are Correct

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

While in the last year of my surgical residency, during a frigid February in the Midwest, I was graced with a one-week vacation. My best friend and I formulated a complicated plan: drive south until we found warm weather. Finally, after getting the car started in the sub zero temperatures, we were off. When we reached Gulfport, Mississippi, we decided to make a right hand turn and soon found ourselves in the warmth of New Orleans and discovered they were celebrating Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras and Fitness

The origins of Mardi Gras — or more affectionately translated as Fat Tuesday –  traces its name and origins from Catholic roots and the feasting upon a fattened calf on the last day of carnival as people were preparing for the abstinence of Lent.

I wouldn’t say the folks at Mardi Gras were the fittest folks I’d ever seen, but then it’s hard to hide much when all you are wearing is a few strings of beads. Still, they didn’t look too bad, and as doctors, we were used to seeing a lot of skin.

Watching video of Mardi Gras the other week reminded me of a study. The study showed that since 1990, the prevalence of obesity in Louisiana has increased by at least 135 percent — and it’s not the beads that are getting larger. Actually, Louisiana has one of the largest rates of overweight and obese individuals in the country, with New Orleans one of the leading cities in this unhealthy statistic. What is even more unsettling is that these rates in children in these areas rank in the top ten nationally and are increasing.

New Orleans Food

Even though in this years Super Bowl the Colts were the favored team in a food war between the two participating cities (Indianapolis and New Orleans), there was no contest. The wide variety of New Orleans cuisine was an easy favorite over the bland casseroles of the Midwest. Really, few cities can compete with New Orleans in the food court.

Although the origins of the cuisine in the French Quarter are, well, French, the so-called French paradox does not seem to be valid in New Orleans. The reason for this is likely that even though the origin of the food is French, it has been changed to the all-American style of increased portion sizes with even more fat, sugar and salt than the original recipes called for to suit the ever gluttonous American palate.

Too Much Food, Not Enough Activity

Although Mardi Gras is officially a two to three week holiday, eating like it’s Mardi Gras has become an all year round event. The only realistic answer is to eat less unhealthy food, fewer calories, consume more food that is healthful and be more active. Perhaps more concrete ideas should be choose smaller portions, don’t eat seconds, avoid buffets, eat out less, eat more at home, make your own meals, shop for healthy food choices and stock your home with these healthy foods. In addition, develop a personal exercise program. All of these ideas can be helpful if you are willing to apply them.

It’s very important, if you haven’t already, to make these types of changes. After all, the only thing we want to be fat is a time of celebration, and maybe a calf.

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J on Mardi Gras and Obesity in Louisiana

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Badges and banners have always had their importance in American culture! From the tin star worn by our cinema heroes to the sash worn by the winners of beauty pageants. I was even moved one year to dress my German Shepard dog up as Miss America at Halloween! He was quite stunning with his silver tiara and Miss America sash.

There is another way I envision the badges and banners people wear. Of course many of us are familiar with the power of positive self-talk and the importance of how we think about something having a real effect on our mental and physical well being.

Banners as our negative identity

I have noticed that many individuals have a badge or banner they wear as their self-identity, the way they see and feel about themselves. Usually in conversation, this banner is one of the first things they will unfurl.

I am not talking about in a hospital clinic but in a more casual social setting. People, often not even knowing that I am a doctor, will tell me in the first minute that they have this disease or that, this problem or that, rarely mentioning anything positive about themselves or their circumstances, usually only concentrating on the negative. Even in our everyday language, expressions such as, “Nothing to complain about,” or “Things could be worse” are commonplace.

Of course there could be some reality with any of these statements, especially with money or jobs in today’s economy or with any real physical problems, but the point is, is this someone’s automatic way of responding? If it is, perhaps it is time to be vigilant, notice, and make a change.

Words have power

The problem I have with this badge and banner behavior is it gives power to the problem rather than power to the solution.

Words have power! Harness that power with positive talk, and take power away from your problems by not talking about them, or talking about them in a positive way.

I once read a story about a famous artist who told this story when asked, “How are you doing?”

He said, “That reminds me of the other day when I was on the 50th floor of the Empire State Building and I saw my friend, Jeff, falling by the window. I called out to him, ‘Jeff, how are you doing?’ Jeff’s reply, ‘OK so far!’”

Those were some positive words!

Maybe a little too positive

I remember attending a national meeting honoring Dr. J Senior for his many years of contribution to his field. Before he went on stage to make his acceptance speech, our family was sitting around in his room talking about the event.

“Dad,” I said, “Why don’t you say in your speech, ‘Thank you for finally recognizing me as the true genius I really am!’”

“Sorry son, I’d really like to, but I don’t think people will understand that.”

We definitely live in a society where self-deprecation is more acceptable.

Perhaps we all need to find the middle ground. Confident, not cocky. Humble, not humiliated.

When it comes to wearing those badges and banners, I guess I’m in more of the, “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges,” camp of thinking!

I strongly suggest that you be there also!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J will see you now: On badges and banners

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

I have long been a fan of the keep it simple stupid (KISS) principle!

There is a reason, in surgery, that the words complicated and complication have the same root origin. I learned that lesson early on in my surgical career when called upon to repair a cheek fracture (ZMC)
for an inmate in our local prison system. He was a large, very muscular man, so I joked with him as I examined the injury, “I’d hate to see the guy who hit you!”

He then told me the story. It seems that while he was doing a bench press, someone with a grudge to settle came up over from behind him and punched him straight down in the face! He probably finished the set before finishing whoever hit him!

In the operating room, I had a decision to make. I could either do a simple intra-oral approach, which would have given a good result most of the time, or a more complicated external approach, which would give a good result almost all of the time. I chose the complicated approach. What could have been a 30-minute operation turned into four and a half hours of very challenging repairs! From that day on, I was a believer in KISS!

KISS and diet

Not surprisingly, successful dieters are believers in the KISS principle also. It seems that the perceived level of complexity of a diet plan’s rules and requirements will have a significant effect on how successful the plan will be for a person’s weight loss efforts.

Researchers from Indiana University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin recently compared the dieting behavior of women following two different diet plans and found that the more complicated people thought their diet plan was, the sooner they were likely to abandon it.

“For people on a more complex diet that involves keeping track of quantities and items eaten, their feelings about the difficulty of the diet can lead them to give up on it,” reported Peter Todd, professor in Indiana’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

Keep it simple, sister

The researchers recruited 390 women, already in the process of using one of the two diet plans, from Internet chat rooms dealing with weight management. The subjects answered questionnaires at the beginning, at four weeks, and at the end of an eight-week period.

The study (PDF) examined the effect of the complexity of two diet plans. Brigitte, the one that is simpler to learn and apply, is a popular German recipe diet that provides shopping lists for the dieters to follow with prescribed meal plans. The other, Weight Watchers, is more complicated, assigning point values to every food and instructing participants to eat only a certain number of points per day.

Discussion

Although most people think the major determinants of whether one will be successful at dieting are willpower and dedication, this research points out that the perceived complexity of a diet plan’s rules and requirements has a significant effect. From my point of view, the more concrete, practical applications that you can use in your attempt at weight control, the greater your chance of getting the results you want. Keeping it simple is practical.

It seems reasonable to believe that the longer people can adhere to their diet plan, with the added potential of making it a lifestyle change, the more successful they will be long-term with their weight loss and maintenance.

For people interested in following a diet plan, Jutta Mata, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, suggests they take a look at several diet plans considering how many rules the plans have and how many things need to be kept in mind to actually apply the plan.

“If they decide to go with a more complex diet, which could be more attractive because it allows more flexibility, they should evaluate how difficult they will find doing those calculations and monitoring their consumption,” she said. “If they find it very difficult, the likelihood that they will prematurely give up the diet is higher and they should try to find a different plan.”

Mata said this complexity, even with the belief that one is capable of achieving the goal of sticking to the diet regimen, will have a negative effect on the outcome.

“Even if you believe you can succeed, thinking that the diet is cognitively complex can undermine your efforts,” she said.

Finding a diet plan that you will stay with is key. There are so many factors that will influence your success. Along with other factors, if you are looking for what will work best for you, whether with surgery or dieting, keeping it simple is the best operation!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J will see you now: Keep it Simple

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight? Did you know that the most common time to start a diet is Monday morning? Are you also aware that the most common time to quit that diet is Tuesday evening? I sure hope you have been doing better than that!

After the holidays, everything must go

I was thinking, there is no better time during the year than now to lose weight. Sure, Black Friday was almost as good, but nothing beats the time after Christmas and into the New Year for getting that new low weight.

Sure you had been at that original list weight, sitting on the shelf, no product movement, but now, with all the after-Christmas and New Year weight reductions, here it is, your chance to be that new sale weight! I can see it now, you and others like you will come flying off the shelves now that you are being offered up at this bargain lower weight!

Of course you are a well-intentioned diet marketer, but even the best dieters can sabotage their weight-sale efforts. Many studies support how easy it is to overestimate the amount of energy you are using and to underestimate the amount of calories you are consuming.

If anything, do the opposite with your diet marketing figures. Levy a calorie tax on the activity you are doing, and decrease the container size of the calories you are consuming.

Staying on target

Here are some ideas to help you market your new weight, and to stay on target with your diet sales projections.

1. No need to fly of the shelf, but a little active movement every day will get that product moving off of you!
2. Don’t eat too many healthy foods. Sure it’s important to eat healthy, but all foods have calories, and even healthy food can add too many calories to your bottom line.
3. Pay attention to all the food you eat in those in-between times. Those tastes you have while making dinner, or even while cleaning up after, are all calories that can add up and make your new product a used hand-me-down.
4. Establish an eating pattern and stick to it. Decide how many meals a day you want, and stay with the sales plan. Don’t advertise you are eating breakfast, then just close the store. You will pay the price for this with too much product surplus later in the day.
5. Make it a seven-day sale. Most people do their shopping on weekends. If you close the store to cheat on weekends, you will not move that product, no matter what price you offer.
6. Be careful with liquid calories. Packaging of your product will be much more attractive without all those messy excessive calorie laden liquids spilling all over the place.

So where do you sit on the shelf? In the back thinking about it, or in the front row ready to be reduced? Are you at your original weight? Perhaps you have had some success and are now at your list weight.

This can be your year to finally reach that final sales weight, and stay there! We are extending our sale at CalorieLab just for you to learn weight loss marketing strategies all year round!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J will see you now: Original weight now reduced

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Stress has become all too common in the fast-paced world that we live in! Most of us can remember a less frantic time. I’m not referring to Mayberry now, just a time when only doctors had pagers and fax machines, let alone cell phones and Blackberries, which were still on some engineer’s drawing table.

I remember one day when my pager went off while I was riding my horse on a nearby prairie chasing some cattle. That initiated a mile run on Zalul at full gallop to reach the closest phone! Now, everyone is in constant communication, and everything has to be there yesterday!

Destressing a must

Finding ways to decrease and manage the stress in our lives, that shelter from the storm, can be a valuable weapon in everyone’s survival kit.

I mentioned in a recent column how going to the Art Institute of Chicago had a large influence on my interest in art and becoming an artist. Something else that I really liked about the Art Institute was the tranquility I found there.

Walking through those beautiful galleries, surrounded by the wonderful, timeless, artistic creations of history was a soft voyage down a quiet river that always left me in a more peaceful place. There is something about art displayed in the gallery setting that is very different from outdoor art shows that have become commonplace. The focus of the gallery is on the art and the rich enjoyment of that experience, not on the selling of a product, with food and continuous frantic entertainment as often the major reasons people attend the event.

Here is a video, “Got Stress?“ that I made comparing the experience of two recent art viewings. The first part was our local outdoor Fall Festival, and the second from the recent University Faculty exhibit held at our museum of art.

Art heals

It seems the idle wanderings among art of my formative years have been supported by the scientific method!

Professor Angela Clow of the University of Westminster studied the effects of viewing art on stress. Her study involved 28 participants who had their saliva cortisol levels measured before and after spending 40 minutes of their lunch hour either meandering through an art gallery or watching an audio-visual art tour.

Clow found that the salivary cortisol levels were reduced by 32 percent. She also noted that “usually it would take about five hours for the cortisol level to fall to this extent.”

Make it a resolution for yourself this winter: find a local art museum and take some time for yourself to wander through their displays, soaking in the richness of the experience.

Your stress levels will thank you!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J on seeking shelter from the stress storm

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

I have to say, I find it frustrating to read blogs, or talk to people, who a year ago, or 10 years ago, were talking about their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and have a healthier lifestyle, and how they were going to change this or that, and then things would be different.

However, instead of making any real changes, they kept doing what they were doing, and kept getting what they were getting, except with aging and usually putting on more weight, they got more of what they didn’t want and less of what they did. They were less healthy, less mobile, less disease-free and less happy.

These are not bad people. In fact, most of them are wonderful people. Just wonderful people heading in a very poor direction, all the while, usually this time of year, talking about how they need to be different.

The “secret” to motivation

I’m always looking for that elusive secret to motivating people to achieve success when they claim to want to become healthier and fitter in the coming year. I believe that’s one of the most common resolutions on that ever-popular list, and usually the first one to fall by the wayside on that circuitous road of good intentions.

Recently I noticed the headline of a story while looking through a well-known fitness magazine. It read, “Doctors Said I’d Never Run Again, But I Did!” Of course it’s more common to hear it expressed as “the doctor said I’d never walk again,” but this was a fitness magazine.

It seems one way to really motivate someone is to tell them that they can’t do something and that they will fail if they even try. Then, it seems, people will work really hard to prove the naysayer wrong.

I’m never quite sure what to make of this in regard to doctors, but people seem to love saying that their doctor was wrong. Perhaps this merely reflects a veiled respect of the profession couched in an oblique way. It’s not like doctors have some kind of Secret Lottery Club, where along with your MD comes a membership allowing you to bet the odds on a patient’s morbidity and mortality with the winner getting free malpractice coverage for the year. Really, we don’t like to all get together after work and compare our winnings over your losings!

I then realized that perhaps I had an opportunity in the making. Since people seem to relish doctors being wrong, and I’m a doctor, why not give them this opportunistic pleasure? Why be positive or supportive this New Years? I’m going to try another approach.

Dr. J says you can’t do it

So here goes:

You guys on a diet to lose weight, you guys trying to become healthier, eat healthier, exercise more, lower your cholesterol or blood pressure, increase your intake of fruits and vegetables. You guys listening?

You are going to fail! You are not going to lose weight. You are going to gain weight. Yup, just like a snowball heading downhill, your waist line will be a growing. As for eating better or becoming healthier, in your dreams, no way, no how!

You know how you always spell the word as “loose” instead of “lose?” Well, you may learn to spell, but none of your clothes will be getting looser!

Diets don’t work, all the research shows that. And that friend of a friend’s sister’s cousin, who you know lost all that weight, well, she gained it all back and more! If you diet, so will you!

Perhaps I can turn this into a full-time job! I could just go around and tell people that whatever it is that they have on their New Year’s resolution list, no matter how trivial or obtainable, “Forgetaboutit, you can‘t do it!” It doesn’t matter who the patient is or what the goal is, the diagnosis will always be the same, a modified version of “You’ll never walk again!”

“You can’t do it” in action

I had a 19-year-old patient who had a severe anaphylactic reaction to an IV drug I had given her. It was incredibly rapid, I had never seen anything like it before. Immediately after I had injected the medication, she looked at me and said, ”I can’t breathe,” and she was gone!

After my initiating emergency treatment and with the Code Team’s help, she was in the ICU, alive but comatose. The consulting neurologist said at the bedside that she would never recover. Perhaps she heard him? I’m happy to report she recovered completely, without any deficit, a few days later.

I suggest your first New Year’s resolution this year be to prove this doctor wrong.

I dare you! It will feel so good!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J on proving the doctor wrong

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Ugly sweaters

A new trend that I just heard about is ugly sweater parties. They are especially popular around Christmastime. There is even a website where you can buy one if you are one of the two people in the country who can’t find one hidden or forgotten in the bottom of a drawer somewhere.

Swedish guys

I have a Swedish friend who is over 90 years old! He is a very fit and healthy 90-year-old. I usually see him at the gym, either in the sauna, one of his region of origin’s gifts to the world, or in the aerobic room doing a series of exercises similar to the 5BX — more popularly known as the Canadian Air Force Exercises — originally developed in the 1950s.

He broke his arm last year slipping on the ice in Stockholm during a visit with his family. He’s probably has lived in the Florida sunshine a little too long, and was out of practice. It healed up without any problems!

Speaking of Swedish guys, a new study has come out of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden on the BMI and health. The work was conducted in conjunction with Britain’s University of Bristol, and the results have just been published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

This was not some minor study. It seems these Swedish researchers measured the BMI and mortality among more than a million pairs of Swedes over 50 years!

Previous studies have found a positive link between BMI and higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some cancers. In addition, a low BMI had been associated with increased mortality from respiratory disease and lung cancer.

These findings about health and a low BMI have been challenged, citing that the figures could be skewed by something called reverse causality, meaning that people with lung cancer, for example, which will cause significant weight loss, are being factored in as those with a low BMI. Smoking and poor socioeconomic circumstances will also induce this error.

The results

The investigators found a significant relationship between increased mortality and increased BMI. This link was especially noticeable in cardiovascular disease, for which the existing estimates may be “substantially underestimated,” according to the researchers.

There was also a positive correlation with diabetes and kidney cancer. There was, however, no evidence of an association between having a low BMI and an increased risk of respiratory disease and lung cancer mortality.

Discussion

You may disagree, not like it, think people can be healthy at any size, or fat but fit, feel statistically that the BMI is bogus, or that it falls apart on the individual level, or any other reason you may have to want to argue about the BMI measurement, but this study looked at over two million people over a 50-year period and showed that the BMI is valid. To quote Deep Thought, the computer from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “Yes I have the answer, but you’re really not going to like it!”

I’m not asking anyone to like it. I’m asking those who need it to recognize the health risks.

I understand if you are protected by youth, or good fortune, and feel that you are healthy in spite of your high BMI that, shall we say, motivation may be lacking to find the need to do anything about it. Please realize that we are concerned about the proven increased potential for early morbidity and mortality. Once you have reached that point with numerous morbidities, it is often too late to find ways to significantly help yourself.

A high BMI, with its well-proven risks to your health, is like that ugly sweater that you may want to ignore or forget about, except try as you might, you can’t take the sweater off without making some substantial healthy changes. You don’t really want to show up unnecessarily early for your funeral in that sweater now, do you?

The time to make those lifestyle changes is now!

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J will see you now: On ugly sweaters, Swedish guys and BMI

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

From my earliest memories, I have had an interest in art and its various media.

I was raised in the Chicago area and remember many trips to the Art Institute of Chicago. They had a large collection of paintings from the Impressionists through the modern era. Picasso and Dali were my favorites! Picasso’s blue period, and Dali’s “Persistence of Memory” stand out in my mind.

As a child, when I thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I had two dreams. One was to be a doctor, and the other to be an artist! Since art was offered earlier in my schooling, and playing doctor was fraught with risks, I began my artistic voyage as soon as I could.

My slice of the creative pie

However, I was not very good. This never stopped me from trying to be an artist, and with years of practice, though I’m still not good, I have gotten a lot better!

In many ways, I have learned to hide my artistic deficiencies. Recently I had the occasion to be visited by a very good artist. In my opinion, he had no deficiencies. He was a portrait painter from California and had painted many famous people over the years. I must admit I was a bit nervous, as I felt with his talent, his time could be better spent.

I was quite surprised with his reaction to my work. He kept asking, “Where did you get that idea, and how did you think of using those colors?” as he was intrigued by my creativity. I realized that in art, as in many areas of life, most of us have a slice of the pie. It is the rare artist or individual who possesses the skills and the creativity of the whole pie!

Opening up to criticism

One of the early lessons I learned as an artist was that criticism seemed to play a large role in the art world. We have heard of art critics, but I don’t think I have ever heard of anybody having the job of a doctor or medicine critic! (And complaining about doctors does not count!)

Really, do any of us like being criticized? I had a friend who was taking an art appreciation course (they don’t call it artist appreciation for a reason). She asked me to bring in a piece I had done so “the class could criticize it.” Now there was something I was really looking forward to! Maybe we need mal-artist insurance, except for the artist, not the viewer.

Yet being open and vulnerable, whether to criticism, or to life, is so very important for all of us.

It can be hard, being the artist, putting your work out there for others to see and react to. I know people who have stopped doing art because they couldn’t take the rejections that come with that tender territory.

Does it hurt? It sure does. My work has been rejected more times than I care to remember, but I have never given up. Perhaps I have a poor memory. Perhaps the desire to be an artist chose me rather than the other way around, and I have no other choice. Nonetheless, the rewards of being creative, whether to exhibit in a gallery, or decorate my home, have been worth the voyage.

The photo that accompanies this column is my sculpture, “Take another piece of my art,” a reflection of my feelings on the vulnerability of the artist.

To be vulnerable is to be human

There is a price to pay for being unwilling to show vulnerability. It is a loss of the humanity that comes along with being real. It also involves the loss of opportunity. The opportunity to grow, to love, to be all that one can attain. Always playing it safe, never putting oneself out there, is very limiting. Safety is numbing. Life is for those who will take that chance, run that risk, go for the gold.

It is important to move through our fears. Often our greatest joys can be found on the other side of our greatest fears. I am reminded of a friend’s story about how her father’s greatest fear was that his beautiful daughter would get pregnant! Well, she did! Now her father has a granddaughter who is the apple of his eye!

Vulnerability is one of the more highly valued, authentic, mysterious and yet obvious characteristics that makes a human being human. It is necessary for our true human development. Vulnerability is that genuine human characteristic that rather than a weakness, is a strength. Never mistake softness for being weak.

After all, “Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.” (Theodore Roethke)

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J will see you now: Take another piece of my art

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A holiday message from Dr. J

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

Tom was the best teacher I ever had! A friend in theater once told me, while she was removing the grease paint from her face after a performance, that the audience remembers the good and the bad, never the mediocre. Tom was a very good teacher.

A lesson on labor

I first met Tom as a medical student. He had known my Dad professionally, so that was his introduction, but he was not one to favor one student over another. He worked in the emergency and diagnostic clinic of the school. The first money I ever made as a doctor was a project Tom asked me to do. He had a patient who needed a splint made for a broken finger.

“Mr. J, would you like to make this splint for a patient of mine?” he asked.

“Sure Doctor, I would be happy to do that, if you think I can,” I replied.

“I’ll tell you how to do it, and I’m sure you will be able to. And I’ll pay you for doing it, after all, I’m going to charge the patient.”

After he carefully explained to me what he needed and what to do, I went to the lab later that day after class and made what he asked for.

“That’s perfect, Mr. J! How much would you like for making that?”

“$20 dollars,“ was my thought out reply.

“How long did it take you to make?”

“About an hour.”

“$20 won’t even cover the materials you used, I’ll give you $100. The patient will pay me twice that for this!”

Obviously I was not going to have a very successful practice with my business model, but I think he liked my attitude!

More lessons

Tom had the unique ability to make you feel good about yourself and what you were learning.

Tom invited me out to dinner one evening with his family.

“We are going to a great restaurant, J, they specialize in catfish,” he said.

“I’ve never eaten catfish, Tom,” I said.

“No problem, I’ll teach you how it’s done!”

He did too. For those who don’t know, there is a time-honored technique to eating this fish.

I was very excited the day I was accepted to my residency in surgery! I didn’t know that I was accepted to the same school that he went to; he was beaming when he told me.

Working together

Due to the rigors of surgery training, I lost track of Tom during those next few years. After finishing up and working a year in the private sector, I got my job in Florida. Was I surprised to find that Tom was already working at the same medical school and hospital!

“Thought I’d move the family to the sunshine state, Dr. J, great to have you on board!”

One of Tom’s responsibilities at the hospital was to make sure all the new doctors were certified in CPR and kept their training current. When he was testing my knowledge, I was again reminded of how wonderful a teacher he was, and I felt so good when he approved my technique.

I had just sat down on a chair in the first floor medical school hallway, taking a break over the noon hour from my teaching responsibilities, when suddenly a Code Blue was announced over the loud speakers. It was in one of the fourth floor clinics. I ran up the stairs to be the first doctor on the scene! Tom was there with a few other personnel.

“Great Dr. J,” he said. “We are testing the emergency response system, and you got here in less than two minutes, plenty of time to save the patient.”

“OK, Tom,“ I said, a little short of breath. I went back to my break on the first floor.

Ten minutes later, a second Code Blue was called! This one was in a clinic on the third floor. I couldn’t take the chance, running up the stairs again, only to find that it was a second test.

“Dr. J,” Tom proudly said, “We are still testing the system. If you hear another Code Blue, you don’t need to answer it!”

“That’s good, Tom!”

I later heard from other colleagues how impressed Tom was with my rapid response!

Tom was from Indiana, and great fan of the Indy 500 car race! When I began making ceramic sculptures, I made him one of an Indy driver. He really seemed to like that!

The final lesson

Something I haven’t mentioned about Tom is he was not in the best of health. He was not that old, but was obese by any measurement one would use. His blood pressure was a little high also, but whenever these things were brought up, he said he felt fine, and he would take care of it eventually. Tom didn’t have eventually. One tragic day, Tom had a stroke. He was paralyzed, and spent the last year of his life in a nursing home.

I have heard people express the sentiment, “We’re all going to die from something.”

Although on the surface this is true, and of course chance plays a role in all of our lives, from what I have witnessed as a doctor, our dying can be with peace and grace, or with incredible misery and turmoil, often depending on the lifestyle habits that have paved the way to our ends.

So if you wonder why it is that I am concerned about people that need to, but are delaying making those important differences in their health and fitness, and mention the BMI or any other measurement that has been shown to be an accurate predictive instrument for warning of future medical problems, it is to alert people to start paying attention.

I do this because of what I have seen happen to those I care about when they did not value their health, and felt problems would happen to someone else, not themselves, or they will address it eventually, because from all the lessons he taught me, even with his passing, Tom was the best teacher I ever had!

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Dr. J on his best teacher

Contributor: “Dr. J”
Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.

A diet secret this doctor will tell you about!

I have a diet secret to tell you about! I suppose I should keep it to myself until I write the book, which, with this diet secret, will make me Bill Gates’ neighbor, but then I really like living in Florida, and besides, I already know one of Bill’s neighbors (he was sleeping on the bus next to Dr. J-Senior) and he didn’t have much positive to say about it.

But more about this secret! For one thing, it’s not only very low cost, or possibly free, but it will save you money! Now for the good stuff. I can guarantee you might save at least 1,000 calories a week using my secret! This of course will lead to a significant weight loss over time. Somewhere, as a conservative estimate, in the range of almost 15 pounds a year!

This is comparable or superior to the results of year long studies of sustained weight loss of any diet drug,
or diet system available today!

In addition, you do not run the risks of drug side effects or allergies, or the various problems attributed to diets that recommend a very high or very low amount of one of the basic nutrients.

In addition, my secret has the potential to lower blood pressure and improve diabetes, by decreasing the amount of salt and sugar or high-fructose corn syrup in your diet.

The Secret: Water!

We all know that drinking clean, safe water is important and that water serves several important functions in maintaining our health.

Functions of water in the human body

• Water is essential for digesting food. It is also important for getting rid of various toxic elements from the body, in the form of urine, sweat and fecal matter.
• Water helps to cushion our joints and prevents shocks.
• Water in blood is the carrier of oxygen and nutrients to our body cells.
• Water in lymph (a fluid that is part of our immune system) helps the body fight against diseases.
• Water helps regulate and maintain our body temperature.
• Water prevents dehydration and thus helps to maintain proper metabolism in our body.

Water, however, can also be our weight loss secret!

Water will dilute and diffuse the calorie, salt and sugar content of food and drink!

I discovered my weight loss secret when I was looking for a way to eat fewer calories, yet eat the same foods. One of the ways I have found to improve a dish is with the use of condiments. Being a label reader, I was initially shocked at the high level of calories, sugar, HFCS, and salt in condiments I like to use.

Why do we need to be a prisoner of the food industries Franken-food creation departments? Their job is not to provide a good product, but to provide a product that will addict you and keep you addicted. They do this with these ingredients.

I decided to dilute their products to a more reasonable calorie, sugar, HFCS and salt level. Guess what? They still tasted good enough, and I was saving plenty of calories by just adding water to the product. I also use my secret ingredient, water, with diffusion, to soak every high-sodium product I can to get the salt out!

You will have to experiment and slowly adapt to how much dilution and diffusion will work for you. As you get used to the more normal level of flavor and seasoning, you will see your consumption of calories, sugar, HFCS and salt decrease. This secret can be used with any sauce, soup, condiment or high-salt product.

This is not hype; water really works. There are already many thousands of people out there in the world who are using water to control and maintain their ideal weight. Millions of years of human use supports the safety and efficacy of water.

Here you are then with a product that can make you lose weight straight from the tap. All you have to do is use it.

Most diet secrets promise the same things:

• Lose weight fast
• Burn fat fast
• Never be hungry
• Eat the foods you love
• Eat anything you want
• Results last forever
• Reshapes your body
• Easy to follow
• Increase your energy
• Guaranteed success

Well, water delivers! (Well water also delivers.)

Water! Doctor tested and approved!

If for any reason you are not 100 percent satisfied with water, my weight loss secret, simply return to me for a full and prompt apology, shipping cost excluded, and please, use a spill-proof container!

Results will vary depending on your needs and utilization of my secret.

Of course, I would like to see all of you using my secret with a healthy diet and exercise program. However, even without that, this small lifestyle change will be a first step in the right direction.

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

Dr. J reveals his weight loss secret!