Radio Interview on 7/24/12

I just remembered that I could post a link to the radio interview I did on KMUN with Ann Goldeen on July 24th.  I came prepared to discuss "Obesity, it's not what you think",  but we did wander around the topic somewhat.  I really hate hearing my recorded voice, so I haven't listened to this myself, except when I was there recording it.

http://coastradio.org/audio/2012/health/AG072412.mp3

The points I wanted to get across the most are: 

Poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle DO cause health problems, in people of ALL sizes.
Everyone should be trying to eat well and move as well as they can, regardless of size.

Diets do not work for 95% of the population.

BMI is not a very accurate measurement of obesity.

Human beings deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of how they look or what you think is going on with them.

Weight by itself is not a problem except in extreme cases where it impacts mobility or you are starving. Fat people live longer than thin people and are more likely to survive cardiac events. If fat people actually do cost the medical system more, it would be around .12% more, if that.

Just for the fun of it, here's a link to Kate Harding's BMI Project.

New Years Revolution!

Happy New Year! Unlike many of my friends I love days like New Years, birthdays and Thanksgiving. I use these types of transitional days to clear my head, to look back and learn from my mistakes, to look forward at what I may do in the future and to be thankful for what I have in the present. I dislike the commercialization of these days and I really wish more people understood the historical background for days like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Some people are bummed by the new year because, even though they say “Happy New Year”, they are focused on what is NOT happy, what they DIDN’T do and they feel the new year will bring more of the same.
I used to make New Years resolutions until a few years ago. They were usually along the lines of losing weight or “finding my true love”. When that didn’t happen by the next year, despite my best efforts, I would feel like such a loser. No matter that I managed to start a business on my own or supported myself, paid my bills, ate my veggies and exercised!
Goals are a good way to change what you want to change in your life, but some things are more obtainable than others. Research shows that most people can’t lose weight and keep it off. However, I can exercise 30 minutes per day and try to eat at least five servings of vegetables per day and that will impact my health positively! I can give someone a break when they are having a bad day and forgive them for tailgating me or messing up my order.
My New Years revolution for 2012 is to find ways to make other peoples’ lives better. I’m not sure what that will be beyond what I do already, but I’m willing to try and keep trying. The revolution is that the goal is really about other people and not myself.
What is your revolution for 2012?

Correlation is Not Causation: Fat is not bad!

Why your fat won’t kill you.

I went to a seminar on obesity, weight loss and menopause about a month ago and I’m still digesting what went on there.  The first speaker was a bariatric surgeon. He admitted to this statistic that I’ve seen while researching various weight loss options: 95% of people who lose weight on diets gain back every pound within three years. He was quoting that to promote gastric bypass as a way to lose weight. 

“In the more than forty years that bariatric surgeries have been performed, there have been no randomized, controlled clinical trials that have shown any long-term improvements to actual health or that lives are saved or extended by these surgeries — not any of the dozens of types and variations being performed, and certainly none of the new procedures claiming to be better and safer. According to obesity researcher, Dr. Ernsberger, Ph.D., of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, several clinical studies to examine the long-term consequences and look for improved life expectancies have been started but the results were never released. “I think it’s because it’s bad news.” Quoted from the blog, Junkfood Science, by Sandy Szwarc, BSN, RN, CCP.

The ECRI report, “Bariatric Surgery for Obesity,” noted that the surgeries can produce significant initial weight loss but “three years after surgery, the typical patient is still obese.” (Also quoted from Junkfood Science.)

Speaker after speaker at this seminar would pay lip service to the statistics that it is almost impossible to lose weight and keep it off, then turn right around and promote diet strategies, weight loss programs such as the HCG injections, and not discuss what a fat or any size person can do to be healthy without worrying about their weight. Some claimed that the cost of obesity health care is increasing everyone’s insurance premiums. 

The CDC’s latest estimate is that an additional 112,000 deaths per year can be ASSOCIATED with obesity. So there is only a .12% increase in death risk if obese. Some of the statistics used to claim the obese are increasing our insurance rates included everyone with hypertension, diabetes, stroke, etc. I know plenty of thin people with these problems as well. I’m sure you do too.

I’m beginning to think the whole obesity crisis is a made up marketing scheme. When I was in college we measured our percent body fat with calipers and the water tank. I had 15% body fat then (very low for a woman) while some teeny tiny gals had 30 and 40% body fat. The trend now is to calculate Body Mass Index (weight in pounds divided by height in inches squared times 703.) This is why so many athletes are “overweight” when BMI is calculated, as the calculation does not take into consideration muscle mass and build. BMI was never meant to measure individual people, it was a statistical tool to measure populations’ obesity. This whole “obesity crisis” stuff came about when the BMI parameters for obesity changed in 1998. One day you were “normal” BMI and the next you could be “overweight”, overnight, at the same weight.

More than ¾ the studies that tracked death rates and weight did not show that the thinnest people live the longest. Glenn Gaessser’s review of heart disease medical literature revealed no correlation between body fat and atherosclerosis. “Clogged arteries are the leading cause of death for Americans, yet after more than five decades and tens of thousands of autopsies, the studies show that fat people are no more likely than thin to have clogged arteries.” (Paraphrased from “Fat! So? by Marilyn Wann)

Some people who get adult-onset diabetes are fat. Some are not. Regardless, treatment centers have found that when diabetics improve their diet and exercise habits, they can lessen the severity of their diabetes and even normalize their blood sugars. These improvements happen even if they don’t lose any weight at all.

The Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research has an ongoing study of 30,000 people which has found that those who are fittest live the longest, no matter what they weigh. Fat people who exercise regularly live longer than thin people who don’t. What does this all mean? If you have a healthy diet and moderate exercise, even if you don’t lose weight, you will live longer, barring accidents, than someone who does not have a healthy diet and does not do moderate exercise. This means a person who weighs 300 pounds can be healthy, especially if the other signs (blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol) are within normal limits. I think that this statement will shock alot of people. You can’t tell, just by looking at someone, how fit they are.

Some statistics I’ve read say that childhood obesity has leveled off or even decreased since 2005, so maybe some of the obesity panic has helped parents get their children more active and make better food choices. Some people in the natural health realm use the obesity crisis as a way to get people to pay attention to industrial farming practices or various chemicals in our foods that mimic hormones. I think we should still be concerned about that. Just don’t show that concern by putting down or bullying someone who appears fat.

I could go on and on, and I will, later. Tell me what you think?

I took too much information from:
Junkfood Science http://junkfoodscience.blogspot.com/
The Fat Nutritionist http://www.fatnutritionist.com/
FAT! SO? by Marilyn Wann, c1998, Ten Speed Press
Shapely Prose http://kateharding.net/

How I make Swiss Steak

I went to a Obesity and Menopause conference two weeks ago.  I want to write something about that, but I'm mulling it over.  There were many things I learned but there were many things presented that I thought was just plain wrong.  It was like these people had not done their research or understood where their statistics came from.

So instead, I give you .... how I make Swiss steak.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Here are the ingredients I used:

2 pounds beef cube steak
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon each salt and garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 large onions (I love onions, you could get by with one.)
1 pound baby carrots (You could use green, yellow or red peppers.)
1 cup chopped celery (Or not.  I don't always use celery in this.)
2 28 ounce cans of chopped tomatoes

Cut the cube steak into bite size pieces.  Mix the flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bag or bowl. Dredge the steak in the seasoned flour and place on a greased pan.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in oven. Alternately you could fry in a skillet. I don't fry because I always burn myself and also my gallbladder doesn't like fried foods so much.

The steak looks like this when it comes out of the oven:

While the steak is cooking, cut up your veggies and put them in your crock pot or baking pan.  First I cut up my onions:

Then I chop up my celery and add my carrots:

Then open up the tomatoes and put them in.  When the steak is ready stir that in as well and you end up with this:

If you use a crock pot, I suggest 8 to 10 hours on low.  If you bake in the oven it will probably take 1.5 to 2 hours on 350.

It looks like this once it has simmered for 10 hours in the crock pot:

I usually serve this with mashed potatoes but I didn't have any potatoes so we just ate this like a stew with some slices of sharp cheddar.  It's so delicious and now I have plenty of leftovers to freeze for future meals!  This recipe feeds 8 very hungry people or 12 moderately hungry people.

Do you make your Swiss steak differently from this recipe?

I don't weigh myself

I don't weigh myself because it doesn't give me information I don't already know.  When my thyroid was out of wack, I was gaining ten or twenty pounds per month on a 1200 calorie per day diet.  I worked out at least 2 hours per day.  I still gained weight.  When I weighed myself I would get very depressed and wondered if I were 'sleep eating'.  However my blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and liver enzymes were all low normal.
Once I got married and had better health insurance, I found out that I had a weird thyroid issue.  Somehow I wasn't making an active form of thyroid that has to do with your metabolism.  Now I take a natural thyroid (Nature-throid), eat around 1800 calories per day and keep my workouts to an hour three times per week. (Less in the winter.)  I don't know how much weight I have lost, but my clothing size is 2 to 4 sizes less than it was 8 years ago.
A friend of mine asked me to research weight loss surgery for her about 2 years ago.  I read so many things about it and learned alot about weight loss research, etc.  But the most important thing I ran into was the concept of Health at Every Size or HAES. 
HAES means to respect and love your body for itself.  Your body is just your body, there is no moral judgement about it.  Eat good food, eat what you want and eat enough to be satisfied. Stop when you are full.  Move because it feels good and do movement that is fun for you.
I'll have more to say about this in the future.

Some interesting links at Kate Harding's Shapely Prose: http://kateharding.net/2007/11/27/the-fantasy-of-being-thin/  and  http://kateharding.net/bmi-illustrated/ 

Read and look.  What do you think?