'Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show' Episode 119: Mighty McDonald's Leaves An Indelible Impression

Don't doubt the massive power that McDonald's holds over kids

When you think about the most famous brands in the entire world that are almost universally recognized by virtually everyone who sees them, one particular brand rises to the very top--MCDONALD'S! There's no denying the saturation of the Golden Arches in the marketplace today, but there's scientific evidence now that shows this influence goes much deeper than mere recognition especially among children.

In Episode 119 of "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore", I highlight a study published in August 2007 that found children preferred food that was wrapped in paper with the McDonald's logo on it compared to the exact same food appearing in plain paper wrapping. It's an absolutely astonishing discovery and further solidifies the argument that many are making that McDonald's has a responsibility to encourage healthier food options for its young customer base.

Click on the "LISTEN NOW" link below or download it to your iPod to hear Episode 119:

"The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore" Episode 119 [13:29m]: LISTEN NOW | Download

McDonald's is a modern-day cultural phenomenon. No other business can claim such a strong foothold on the children of this world (except for maybe Disney, but that's debatable!). And with that great power there should be a responsibility to do something effective with it while still maintaining a profitable business model. The two are not mutually exclusive and offering healthy alternatives at the most famous fast food restaurant in the world is not an unreasonable request. And don't tell me they already do offer "healthy" choices because sugary salads and HFCS-infested caramel apple dippers don't count!

Creating the R Gym concept was a good start on the fitness end of things and so was donating $2 million to childhood obesity research. But those are merely window dressing on a problem that runs deeper than even McDonald's is willing to admit. Fast food makes you fatter--DUH! And yet representatives with the company want to claim eating the food at Mickey D's is part of a "balanced" diet. As John Stossel would say, give me a break!

Never miss out on the latest health research and studies by:

1. Listening at the official web site
2. Calling (818) 688-2763 to listen via Podlinez
3. Subscribing to the RSS feed
4. Going to iTunes--Click here to subscribe!

What do you make of this study revealing the marketing prowess of a company like McDonald's? Do you think they should use their popularity among the kids to begin educating and offering better food choices? Or it is perfectly fine for them to continue peddling burgers, French fries and milkshakes to serve the needs of their "growing" customer base? Talk about it in the show notes section of Episode 119 and let us know what YOU think!

Is there someone within the realm of diet, health and nutrition that you'd like to see me interview for "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore?" I'm always open to suggestions for future interviewees, so don't hesitate to let me know if I've overlooked someone important you'd like to hear more about. Please e-mail me with your recommendation at livinlowcarbman@charter.net and I'll do my best to set it up. THANKS for listening to the Internet's #1 low-carb podcast show!

Bake This Low-Carb Wicked Witch Halloween Cake

She may be evil-looking, but this witch is totally low-carb

Halloween is here this week along with all that sugar, sugar, and more sugar (aka "rat poison"). It really disgusts me that we have a national day for children to load up on one of the most damaging things they could possibly put inside their body. But the candy companies love it because their sales projections depend on this deeply-entrench annual tradition that shows no sign of ever going away.

Call me a party pooper, but at some point we need to wake up to reality and realize that our condoning of passing out gobs and gobs of candy on Halloween sends mixed messages to children about health. If all the adults are giving out candy to children, then it can't be that bad, right? WRONG! Those of us who are livin' la vida low-carb should take the lead and refuse to pass out sugary treats. Instead, we can buy small toys or some other non-sugary treat.

We'll keep talking about this problem year after year until people realize it is all that sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and excessive refined carbohydrates behind the childhood obesity and Type II diabetes epidemic we face. Either we figure that out now while we still can or we are forced to come to grips with it when these conditions are expected to overtake ALL our children by the year 2044.

So what can we do? Well, we can at least try to find ways to cut the sugar content of the "treats" we serve for days like Halloween. That's why I'm happy to tell you about a really awesome cake recipe that is shaped like a wicked witch. COOL! Special thanks to SheKnows.com for this outstanding sugar-free/low-carb recipe.

LOW-CARB WICKED WITCH HALLOWEEN CAKE

For the cakes:
4 cups almond flour
2 cups unsalted butter (room temperature) (plus 1 tablespoon for greasing)
6 tablespoons Splenda
10 large eggs
2 generous teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the frosting:
2 (8-oz ) packages cream cheese
1/2 cup Splenda (sucralose)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup whole milk*
Green food coloring (for the face)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon whole milk*
1 tablespoon Splenda (for the hat)
17 Sugar-free Gummi Worms, plus your choice of any other sugar-free Halloween candy shapes for decoration only.

*Use low-carb milk if desired. This will change the nutritional analysis below.

Servings: 20
Nutritional info per serving:
6.61g carbs
2.53g fiber
9.29g protein
38.39g fat
180.74mg cholesterol
144.46mg sodium
409.92 calories

Click here for the baking directions on this deliciously evil low-carb Halloween dessert.

Jimmy Moore's 'Help The Teachers' Challenge To Low-Carb Supporters

Here's your chance to help some truly needy kids and teachers

Earlier today, I was being interviewed by a New York University science journalism graduate student who is writing an article about the impact of people who are trying to shape the debate within the realm of health and nutrition and she asked me all sorts of questions about the work I am doing online. I especially remember her asking me a rather loaded question that goes much deeper than the two-minute response I gave her.

Here's what she asked:

"Why did you decide to start a blog?"

The context of that question was, of course, referring to the subject of promoting the low-carb lifestyle in our culture, but in retrospect I believe the answer runs much deeper than that to something that means a lot more than getting people to go on a low-carb diet. It's about wanting to make a genuine and lasting difference in the lives of other people.

With literally thousands upon thousands of visitors coming here to my "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" blog each and every day (THANK YOU!), I have been privileged to be the inspiration, motivation, and catalyst for seeing some truly remarkable changes in so many of you that I could go on for days, weeks, and months talking about all of you who have shared your incredible stories with me about how this blog has positively impacted your life.

What a blessing it is time and time again as you pour out your innermost feelings to me in e-mails and comments. It never gets old and my dear wife Christine keeps every single one of them in a scrapbook for me to look at so we can show our grandkids someday what a difference one person can make when they dedicate themselves to something greater than themselves.

And that's what I want to talk to you about today. Livin' la vida low-carb is my catchy little phrase for talking about this amazingly healthy and permanent lifestyle change that has rocked my world for the past four years. Yes, it's about weight loss and health first and foremost, but there's another component to it as well. To me, it's also about giving back to the community with our time and resources.

People are always asking me why I devote so many long hours (most of the time, it's about 14-16 hours a day) to the various projects I engage in and the answer is simple: I've been given an incredible miracle in my life thanks to the Atkins diet, so the least I can do is give my very best effort to help as many people as possible find their pathway to a healthier, better life, too. And that's what drives me.

To that end, I want to share with you an unbelievable opportunity for YOU to make a real difference in the life of some underprivileged children and the courageous teachers who have been entrusted to work with them as they are growing up. To me, teachers are the REAL heroes in the United States, right alongside policemen, firemen, and the men and women who comprise the armed forces of this great country we live in.


DonorsChoose.org is making a difference in the lives of kids across America

There's an organization called DonorsChoose.org that encourages teachers who have some legitimate financial needs to share those on their web site to give individuals like you and me the opportunity to fill those needs. It's an amazing concept that I'm so happy to not just share with you today, but to also give you the opportunity to become a part of.

I've created my own challenge to the readers of this blog called "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Help The Teachers Challenge" and I've set a respectable goal that I think we can reach if everyone does what they can--$10,000. Just $1 from every person who visits here in a month would net a quick $200,000, so this goal should be a cinch if we all make even a nominal contribution.

You'll notice on my challenge page at DonorsChoose.org that there is a list of proposals I have provided in this challenge that fit within the mission of what I do--educating, encouraging, and inspiring others to live healthier than they ever though possible. Please browse through those for yourself to get an idea of what your dollars will be invested in.

This is a very worthy cause that will make you feel good about your decision to take back control of your weight and health while passing on and instilling those same values into the future generations so they won't struggle with the same problems we did growing up and into adulthood. Education is the key as we move forward with spreading the message of healthy living to our most precious commodity--our kids!

Wanna be a part of my "Help The Teachers" challenge? Here's how:

1. Go to the challenge web site.
2. Take a look at the various proposals I have chosen for this challenge.
3. Think and pray about what you can donate towards the challenge.
4. Click on the "Fund Now!" link to your favorite proposal.
5. Feel good that you made a lasting difference in the life of a child.

Are you ready to pay it forward for all the amazing improvements you have seen in your own weight and health as a result of your low-carb lifestyle? Then why not join me in the "The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Help The Teachers Challenge" and share just a small token of your appreciation with some students and teachers who could really use a hand of compassion now more than ever. THANK YOU for participating in this challenge!

Low-Carbonanza: Carbs, Diet Soda, And Children

I have a little mix 'em up, match 'em up of topics to share with you in this blog post today, so let's get started!

First up is a neat column on carbs from friend and fellow blogger Amy Tenderich from the "Diabetes Mine" blog who asks "Why Did God Make Carbs So Yummy?" As a diabetic seeking to control blood sugar levels through carbohydrate restriction, Amy has a rather humorous look at those darn carbs! I'm sure my readers will get a big kick out of this post!

Next, we have a rather alarmist column on diet sodas entitled "Is Your Favorite Drink Toxic?" from Dr. Jonny Bowden. Jonny's main issue with the sugar-free, bubbly soft drinks has more to do with the use of the artificial sweetener aspartame (which I call NASTY-tame!) in them than anything else. And yet he came down rather harshly against them as a whole in this article.

So I e-mailed Jonny to inquire about my favorite diet sodas sweetened with Splenda and the new ones that will be coming out sweetened with stevia. Here was his response:

"Obviously stevia is a no-problem, no-brainer. The problem for me is I hate the taste and aftertaste, but I see no health problems whatsoever with it.

Splenda SO FAR seems to me pretty innocuous. I know my friend Dr. Joseph Mercola doesn't agree, but I've looked like mad and can't find any really good, responsible argument against it that can be substantiated.

That does NOT mean I won't be proven wrong in a year and I reserve the right to change my mind if there's more compelling stuff coming out. But right now I see it as the least bad of the choices."

Fair enough, Jonny! THANKS for the clarification.

Finally, I received an e-mail from someone about whether livin' la vida low-carb is appropriate for feeding young children or if it's better to wait until the children become adults. Here's the e-mail:

My wife & I are in the process of adopting a child from Russia. We're tentatively thinking that we'll be standing in Red Square by Fall. It's understandably an exciting time for us and we're doing as much preparation, planning, and research as we can to be ready for this addition to our lives.

With that in mind...

We're also both in the early phases of going low-carb (although my loving wife is having a tougher time making this commitment than I am) and I'm wondering how much of our newfound low-carb eating habits should we try to encourage with our new child, when he arrives?

The established dietary guidelines for toddler's are quite carb-heavy with lots of fruits & grains, but I'm wondering if that's okay due to the unique dietary needs of a developing post-infant-aged child. Now sure, I know that we can steer some of those choices in better directions by choosing more nutritionally-dense fruits (like raspberries or melon instead of sugary raisins or apples) and vegetables (maybe broccoli instead of carrots?) but should we do more than that?

Ultimately, I guess I'm asking, at what age is it appropriate to begin limiting carbs and/or emphasizing protein consumption with the goal of sorta having the whole family eating similar foods.

As soon as I got this e-mail, I knew EXACTLY who to ask--my reader Valerie Jacobsen who is the mother of ELEVEN CHILDREN!!! Yep, I'd say she qualifies to answer this one. :D

Forget the Brady Bunch, Valerie's even got them beat! See a picture of her robust family before the newborn arrived a few months back by clicking here. She's quite the knowledgeable one regarding livin' la vida low-carb, so there was nobody else who could answer this question quite like Valerie. Here's her response:

How thrilling! Thank you for giving a home to a child who needs one!

I'll just share my experience and opinions, because there is no definite, clear, research-based answer on this. Also, you should know that while our children have never had refined carbs in significant amounts, their mommy just started eating low carb in 2003. I am definitely still learning!

We have 11 children ages 17 years to 6 months. I woke up this morning to see the box of 5 dozen eggs open on the counter with a beautiful tray beside it arranged with browned ground turkey, sliced cheddar cheese, and sliced red and yellow peppers. A bag of frozen broccoli was steaming in the microwave. This all for made-to-order omelets already in preparation.

Children in cultures all over the world have eaten diets based on combinations of protein, fat, vegetables and fruits in season for thousands of years. We don't have sufficient, recent, long-term controlled studies to satisfy the American Academy of Pediatrics that this is a healthy way to eat, but one of the joys and blessings of being a parent is doing your own research, knowing your own child well (you will!), and making your own best decisions.

Given adequate calories and abundant fat and no portion control, this parent believes that low-carb food choices are fine for toddlers--and the AAP does not have long-term controlled studies to show me otherwise. ;-)

I like to have my children avoid artificial sweeteners and low-carb "products" with the exception of rare treats until near adulthood--but that's me. You'll know your own child, you'll observe his growth and watch how he reacts to different foods--and you'll make your own good decisions based on your observations. Even without AAP oversight for every decision, this is what loving parents do.

While I think that a low-carb diet is a healthy choice even for toddlers, my husband and I do believe that healthy, active children are able to safely consume more carbs than most adults--provided that those carbs are unrefined and eaten as close to their natural state as possible. Low-sugar fruits and modest amounts of whole grains probably don't cause obesity in active children--but I definitely wouldn't want to build in them a taste for junk.

We do allow birthday cakes (a dozen a year!) and occasional whole grain cookies. (My eldest daughter's first birthday cake was a whole grain carrot cake sweetened with stevia. You may or may not want to do something like that in your family, but this kind of rare treat is at least not the kind of white flour + white sugar + fluorescent food coloring garbage that builds an appetite for a lifetime of eating trash!)

We encourage our kids to eat all different kinds of vegetables. When a child meets a veggie that he doesn't like, I just tell him, "Well, that's because your tongue is still little and it hasn't learned to like broccoli yet. If you help your tongue practice, then you will see that it will learn as it grows. Try just one bite." And I tell him, "Remember, your tongue is not the boss of what you eat; YOU ARE!" :-)

When we go to the grocery store, even my tiny children will point at the refined carbs and say, "THAT'S not our kind," with a tone implying wonder that anyone would want to eat it.

We also encourage our children to be active explorers of their environment--to take family nature hikes, play in the back yard, build things, dig holes, play kickball, play volleyball, play sports. Part of the low-carb healthy lifestyle is to live an active life! We have no video games and very little TV here. It's not that I think they are poison, necessarily, I just don't want those things to take the place of better, more healthy life experiences!

These are just my thoughts. I think you can invite your child to your table to eat what you eat. If he needs something more or different, you'll know it. One of the reasons that I can have 11 children without tearing my hair out is that I believe caring for them is far less complex and more intuitive than a mountain of childcare experts would lead us to believe. :-)

THANK YOU for sharing your experiences, Valerie! By the way, are you going for a full dozen? LOL! Wish you could spread the wealth a little with me and Christine. :D

That's it for my little low-carbonanza! Gotta go for now, but we'll do this again real soon. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

McDonald's Brags About Their 'Healthy' Diet Shrek Promotion For Kids

Have movie tie-ins like Shrek and McDonald's taken marketing too far?

When is the craziness gonna end with these cross-promotions between blockbuster films aimed at children and fast food restaurants? We wonder why childhood obesity isn't getting any better and yet we continue to see such blatant abuse of the love and trust kids have in these characters they see on the silver screen.

McDonald's is notorious for feigning to be a supporter of health with gimmicks like their new R Gym and donating money to combat childhood obesity while still serving such high-carb garbage "food" products as French Fries, apple pies, and milkshakes. Now they've done it again with the release this week of what is sure to be the biggest animated film of all-time--Shrek The Third.

You'll recall my blog post about how ironic it is that Shrek was being used to promote exercise by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services while simultaneously pushing junk foods like Skittles, M&M's, Fruit Loops, and other sugary, carb-loaded products. Now the big green lovable ogre is pushing something strange again--"healthy" meals for kids at McDonald's?

This PR Week column says McDonald's has teamed up with Dreamworks on this massive Shrek campaign to try to encourage children to eat better. Ooooookay, so an ogre who eats anything and everything in sight wants kids to do as he says not as he does. I see.

The new Shrek Happy Meal gives the following "healthy" food choices for children--Chicken McNuggets (breaded and packed with carbohydrates), Apple Dippers with Caramel Dipping Sauce (as if the sugar from the apples wasn't bad enough, you have to give them a high-fructose corn syrup dip, too--oh yeah, it's LOW-FAT!), low-fat milk (um, that's not exactly healthy for you, I hate to break it to the head honchos at Mickey D's!) and a Shrek toy (well, at least SOMETHING is carb-free).

Isn't this just disgusting! The worst part of all is McDonald's can thump its chest at how responsible they are to offer such "healthy" options for their customers when they are doing no such thing. Of course, they're playing it up by claiming their Shrek marketing strategy is the "single biggest global promotion" of fruits, vegetables, and low-fat milk in the company's history.

You've GOT to be kidding me!

Well, goodie goodie for you, McDonald's! But don't give me the fruit and vegetable copout answer! You have YET to cater to the low-carber on your menu while you have bent over backwards sucking up to the nutritional advice of people like one of your health advisory board consultants, Dr. Dean Ornish. Even HE told me in my interview with him last year that you should be doing more.

Why is that, McDonald's? What's wrong with putting even a few token "low-carb" items on your menu so that we can find something healthy for us to eat when we are on the road, hmmm? Grilled chicken nuggets, blueberries and cream, sugar-free low-carb cookies, ANYTHING! Do you even care about having us as customers?

But all this talk of being about a "healthy" diet at McDonald's has led the British CEO to protest that they need to stop the masquerade and get back to selling bigger burgers instead. Ahhh, nothing like a little truth for a change!

Nevertheless, marketing promotions like the one with Shrek remain to give kids "choices." Sigh. While Shrek may be telling kids to "Go For Green," I have a feeling they'll keep on going for carbs instead (just look at the statistics from a recent American Diabetes Association report about what constitutes vegetable consumption by kids these days--it's a SHOCKER!).

This isn't just an American problem either as McDonald's has taken their Shrek campaign to over 100 nations worldwide. So, by all means go watch Shrek, Donkey, The Gingerbread Man, Puss In Boots, and Fiona in their magical tale this weekend. But tell your kids about what healthy eating is REALLY about by celebrating with a meal fit for a low-carb king.

It's NOT at McDonald's, I can assure you of that.

Study Shows Low-Carb Diet 'Effective' For Teens, New Reality Show Puts It To The Test

We all know how well livin' la vida low-carb works for adults to produce weight loss, improvements in health, and changes in your life that are simply indescribable. I can personally attest to all three of these and enjoy proclaiming them boldly and proudly here at my blog as much as possible on a daily basis.

But what about children and teenagers? Is a low-carb diet appropriate for them, too? Well, according to this Newswise story, there's a new study that answers that question with a resounding and undeniable YES!

Lead researcher Dr. Robert Siegel, medical director at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, wanted to see the impact of a low-carbohydrate diet weight loss approach on obese teenagers when a pediatrician is involved in dietary recommendations and support. The study lasted six months and carbohydrate restriction was the primary means for attaining the objective.

The study participants were from 25 pediatric offices with 47 pediatricians in the Cincinnati, Ohio area and were between the ages of 12 and 18 with a body mass index (BMI) in the 95th percentile range for their age, or clinically morbidly obese. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of the children were placed on a ketogenic low-carb diet with 50g or less carbohydrate daily.

The pediatrician and a dietitian counseled the study participants regularly to make sure they understood their new diet and to provide any helpful tips and advice about what they can eat and thrive on low-carb. Nearly 60 percent of the study participants stuck with the plan for the entire six-month period.

So, how well did livin' la vida low-carb perform for these teens?

Very few of the study participants failed to lose weight with an impressive 84 percent of them experiencing an average 11-pound weight loss. There was a wide range of results from a 12-pound weight GAIN (how much you wanna bet this kid didn't eat less than 50g carbs?) to an eye-popping 53-pound weight LOSS (an average of 18 pounds a month! WOW!).

Just as impressive was the fact that the teenagers saw a "significant decrease" in their BMI and a huge boost in their self-esteem. This is one of the most overlooked aspects of livin' la vida low-carb. Because you see such quick weight loss on low-carb rather than the discouragingly slow drip-drip-drip of a half-pound or so a week on low-fat diets, you DO feel more confident and better about yourself.

When you are a teenager, this is VERY important when self-image is magnified a MILLION times more than when you become an adult. Perhaps these obese teens who are losing weight have never had the courage to go out on a date, speak up in class, participate in social activities, and other such formative events in their life. I remember how it felt to be an outcast of sorts because of my weight as a child and young adult. Livin' la vida low-carb changed that FOREVER! WOO HOO!

Dr. Siegel was impressed with the results of the low-carb diet and warned that the obesity epidemic will only get worse the longer we ignore low-carb as a possible remedy.

“Most obese children go on to become obese adults and will face related morbidity and mortality risks," he said. "Pediatricians are often frustrated in finding an intervention that is feasible and successful in the office setting. A low-carb diet may be one answer.”

What was that? A LOW-CARB DIET MAY BE ONE ANSWER!

Can we put that in the headline of every newspaper in America, flash it across the screen on all the cable news channels, quote it on the radio at the top of the hour news...oh, sorry, I got so caught up in how amazing that quote from Dr. Siegel that reality escaped me momentarily. You and I both know that'll NEVER happen with the anti-low-carb bias that exists in the media! Otherwise, it would have ALREADY happened, right?

Wanna know what else happened to the teens in the study typical of a low-carb diet? They spontaneously cut back on their calories. Yep, even without counting them, the average daily caloric intake was CUT IN HALF--an incredible 1200 calories--from 2,401 down to 1,153. This study shows it's true!

Also typical of the low-carb lifestyle that was borne out in this study is that the amount of fat consumed actually remains unchanged, although the percentage of fat in the diet increases. As much as the low-fatties like to claim the Atkins low-carb diet is so "high-fat," the fact is the amount of fat eaten is the very same as what people have been eating. So much for that lame excuse. How's that for some cold hard truth?!

It all comes down to making better food choices rather than obsessing over foods and even teenagers can learn an invaluable lesson that will serve them well for the rest of their long and healthy lives. No more inevitable weight loss surgery for these kids.

In a related story, this London Telegraph story takes advantage of the popularity of television shows like NBC's "The Biggest Loser" and CBS's "Survivor" to create a reality show for obese British teenagers unlike anything you've ever seen before!

The six one-hour shows over a three-week period, set to feature five boys and five girls 16-19 years old, will be called "Fat Teens Can't Hunt" and will feature the original Aborigines children teaching 10 overweight British teens about how to eat like the native people did. Yep, you heard me right, these kids will have to become hunter-gatherers just like our early ancestors.

It won't be airing until late 2007/early 2008, but what an incredible concept! Much in the same way Michael Pollan described in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, the kids will be required to find and kill their own food or go hungry. EEEK!

What's gonna be in their diet? Nuts, berries, fish...hmmm...

Do you notice what the macronutrient composition of that diet is? If you answered high-fat, high-protein, and low-carb, then you would be absolutely correct! Yeah!!! When can we get this show to come to the United States, hmmm?

I'm sure low-carb researcher Dr. Jay Wortman, who I met this past weekend in Nashville, Tennessee at the Nutrition & Metabolism seminar, would be more than happy to introduce some obese American teenagers to the First Nations aborigines people in Canada.

Although they have already been criticized for being cruel to the children on the show by making them actually find the food they want to eat, the show's producers say it's a novel concept that will make the teenagers appreciate where their food comes from.

"These kids will have to catch, trap, pluck, skin and eviscerate the animals they come across," the producer said. "We'll film them tasting the fruits of their labours."

If the teens get stuck and can't find any food to eat for two days or more, then the television show's producers will provide "emergency rations" to help them survive. Of course, medical professionals will be on hand to keep track the health of the contestants. The producers anticipate the move to livin' la vida low-carb as a permanent healthy lifestyle change takes about three weeks, so they are hopeful the contestants will continue their new habits beyond the show.

I love the attitude of the producers about their show.

"This experiment gives our teenagers a unique opportunity to address their dysfunctional relationship with food, once and for all, before they reach adulthood," they said.

Hallelujah! Somebody pinch me because this has got to be a dream. Livin' la vida low-carb is gonna be on full display featured prominently in a major television series in the UK. When the kids successfully start losing weight and on the road to a healthy life. It's a beautiful visual of what Dr. Siegel found to be true in his study.

Let the endless screaming by the pompous low-fat gurus begin!

Have You Tried The 'Eat-Like-A-Child' Diet?

Is this the next great weight loss guru to tackle global obesity?

Sometimes we get so caught up in the various complexities of an organized weight loss strategy that we totally forget what really works. Have you ever found yourself in this position? Sure you have and we all have. But constantly reminding yourself of what is most important will keep you on the pathway to the eventual weight loss success that you so desperately desire.

Do you remember that classic book that's been out for over two decades now called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by that very wise and observant man named Robert Fulghum. I remember the first time I started reading some of the stories he shared in that book about how most of life and the lessons therein are actually taught to us in kindergarten.

But somewhere along the way, we lose sight of those very basic, but always crucial axioms about how to live. Is it because we feel so self-reliant as we get older that we don't feel the need to rely so heavily on conventional methods for living? Or are we all that ignorant that we feel like we can REALLY help ourselves? It's a good question to ponder in your own mind and the answer you come up with may explain why you are overweight or obese to begin with.

Think about it. Many children have a natural ability to just know what to do regarding their diet and don't have to think about calories, fat grams, or carbs. They just do what they do best and that's eat. They haven't been tainted by the allure of being thin, the peer pressure to look like a supermodel, or the insatiable desire to be so self-conscious about their weight that they don't eat for days.

Can I get a witness?

Nope! Instead, a child is more apt to simply listen to his body and take the appropriate actions to satisfy that very basic need to get rid of hunger and provide his body with the energy it needs. The last time I was skinny before my weight loss success on low-carb in 2004 was when I was a toothless, freckle-faced 4-year old with my hair sticking straight up in the back.

I pulled out an old school photo of myself from my baby book recently and was so mesmerized by the photo from when I was in kindergarten. How did I go from THAT skinny and healthy little boy and become this 410-pound behemoth monster of a man in the decades to come? It's elementary--I totally forgot all of the things I was doing at that time in my life to keep me thin (there's more to it than that, but you get the drift!).

So, what are some of the diet lessons we could learn from a kindergarten kid, hmmm? Click here to read just a few examples of what I'm talking about that could very well put you back on the road to weight loss success. It's elementary, my dear! :)

Study: Increased Exercise For Children Must Be Accompanied By Diet Change

Researchers found exercise by itself will not help kids lose weight

This MedPage Today article pours buckets of cold water over the notion that young children are not getting enough exercise to ward off obesity.

Lead researcher Dr. John J. Reilly from the Division of Developmental Medicine at the University of Glasgow along with his fellow researchers wanted to look at the effectiveness of physical activity on the prevention of childhood obesity in a randomized controlled trial. Specifically, they were looking at the reduction in the body mass index (BMI) of preschool-age children over a one-year period.

The research included 545 children from 36 preschools in Glasgow, Scotland with a mean age of 4.2 years old when the study began. They were required to participate in three 30-minute exercise sessions each week in the first six months of the study as well as health education courses in the home to foster increased physical activity among the young study participants outside of school rather than doing such slothful activities such as watching television, playing video games, or any other non-exercise activities.

While the primary focus of the study was on the BMI, Dr. Reilly also wanted to see how much exercise the children got versus their sedentary behavior and whether that made any measurable difference.

The results? NO SIGNIFICANT EFFECT WAS MADE ON BMI AFTER SIX MONTHS AND TWELVE MONTHS! The control group and study group were virtually the same with a standard deviation score for BMI at 0.46 after six month and 0.41 after twelve months. The control group BMI was exactly the same at 0.43 after six and twelve months.

However, one difference was the kids who had increased exercise did have significantly better motor skills than their control counterparts when adjusted for sex and baseline performance.

As a result, Dr. Reilly and his researchers concluded that physical activity is not a factor in weight loss among children. They state that perhaps other changes are necessary to turn the tide of obesity among young children.

"Successful interventions to prevent obesity in early childhood may require changes not just at nursery, school, and home but in the wider environment," the researchers found. "Changes in other behaviors, including diet, may also be necessary."

This study was published in the October 2006 issue of the British Medical Journal.

So all the talk about kids needing to sneak in more exercise has been just a smokescreen to avoid dealing with the real culprit in childhood obesity--POOR DIET! While ideas such as weighted toys sound like a good thing to do at face value, this study by Dr. Reilly clearly shows exercise alone is not the answer. It MUST be in correlation with other changes, including what we are feeding kids.

Whether people realize it or not, this is a very serious issue that has potentially lethal consequences for overweight and obese children when they mature into adulthood. Fat babies make fat adults and there's no getting around that fact. If we can stop the obesity epidemic while children are still young, then a lot of the health problems that are plaguing the adult population today can be avoided. That doesn't mean we need more money thrown at the problem either.

But the changes in diet have to make good nutritional sense for our children as well. Kids these days are eating way too much sugar and other refined carbohydrates for their bodies to use for energy. You've got people like former President Bill Clinton pushing for healthier food choices in schools, but many of these recommended foods are still LOADED with carbohydrates!

Considering the state of childhood obesity is where it is today, it may not be a bad idea for parents to start looking at the low-carb lifestyle for their children and themselves for that matter. It's certainly something worth a closer look in light of the failure of what we are doing right now.

Clearly, something is NOT working, so making measureable and meaningful changes in the diet we are feeding our kids is sorely needed. Your children can exercise to your heart's content and that's a good thing--A VERY GOOD THING! But if you keep feeding your family garbage foods that are doing nothing to add value to their health, then all that exercise is negated.

Of course, critics of Dr. Reilly's study will claim the children did not get the 30-minutes-a-day minimum amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity recommended recently by the American Heart Association. But it may not make a difference if they're still eating all those high-carb, high-sugar foods that tend to plague our diet in modern times.

The study was paid for by the British Heart Foundation, the Glasgow City Council, and the Caledonian Research Foundation.

You can e-mail Dr. Reilly about his study at jjr2y@clinmed.gla.ac.uk.

Bill Clinton, AHA Should Stop Their Childhood Obesity Masquerade

Bill Clinton is the consummate politician taking credit for simply trying

Like I have said many times before, I really don't like talking about politics at my health and weight loss blog. Most of the issues that are dealt with in this forum are political only in the diet and nutrition world, but not generally in the realm of governmental politics.

But sometimes these two worlds inevitably collide and that's exactly what this Washington Post story about a new deal to limit junk foods sold in school vending machines does with a vengeance.

It seems five of the top junk food vending machine companies--PepsiCo, Mars Inc., Kraft Foods Inc., Campbell Soup Co. and Dannon Co.--have vowed to take their high-carb, high-fat products out of the schools in favor of "healthier products" (we'll get into what that means in a moment).

The voluntary agreement was made possible by the ever-present elder statesman himself, former President Bill Clinton, along with the American Heart Association (AHA). They wanted to help make the nutritional choices for kids better while they are in school because many blame these foods on the rise in childhood obesity rates (I do not blame the junk food companies, but rather the parents for making poor nutritional choices and for not educating their own children to discern between what is good for them and what is not).

Isn't this agreement quite an ironic twist considering the man involved? Here we have the former leader of the free world who was infamous for eating cheeseburgers and French fries while he was President telling junk food manufacturers what they can and cannot sell in schools to children. Furthermore, he will now go around taking credit for bringing an end to childhood obesity in America because he cared enough to "work hard to TRY" to do something about it. What a freakin' joke!

This is nothing more than political posturing by Clinton to shift attention away from his little temper tantrum with Chris Wallace a couple of weeks ago. The negative publicity that he received from that infamous fiasco undoubtedly led him to go into damage control mode, so a trumped-up positive story like this one where he is seen as helping the children is just what the doctor ordered.

PUH-LEEZE!

What is going to happen as a result of this need I remind you VOLUNTARY agreement Clinton helped bring about? It's VOLUNTARY which means any of the parties involved can most certainly back out at any time and Clinton still can say, "Well, at least I TRIED to tell them this would be good for the American children, but they wouldn't listen to me." Either way, he comes away looking spic-n-span squeaky clean in all of this even if NOTHING changes at all. That's not leadership, that's politics as usual!

Unfortunately, that's politics for you. It's all about who can take credit for non-action that looks like action today. But if Clinton or any other politician is sincerely interested in helping protect kids from the junk food that entices them, then why not get Congress to pass a law to make it mandatory to ban these from schools, hmmm? If they really want these junk foods out of schools, then make it a requirement with a law. That would certainly add more teeth to the argument that you care about improving the health of children if you think the presence of junk food is the culprit.

Gary Ruskin from the non-profit childhood obesity education group Commercial Alert had a rather terse response for Clinton questioning the "healthy alternatives" that will be allegedly offered as well as what's in this deal for the former president.

"Who is Bill Clinton kidding? Baked potato chips and sweetened bars are not substitutes for apples and carrots, beans and greens," Ruskin exclaimed. "Has the Clinton Foundation received any contributions from any of the companies that are a party to this agreement? How about the American Heart Association?"

You can't blame people like Ruskin for having questions like this based on Clinton's past behavior. But it does make you wonder if anything really will change or if this little media fanfare around what Clinton TRIED to do is all that will come of this. Awww, wasn't he so great for trying to help the fat little kiddies get healthy? Awww, he just cares so much for the little ones. Can I BARF now?! It's sentiments like this that make some want to throw more money at childhood obesity, but that is clearly not the answer.

This isn't the first time Clinton and the AHA have come together in a similar arrangement regarding junk food in schools. Earlier this year, they got Coca-Cola Co., Pepsi and Cadbury Schweppes PLC to stop selling non-diet soft drinks in schools since so many kids were chug-a-lugging on sugary sodas during the daytime. Now they will be guzzling sugary pseudo-fruit juices and energy drinks instead. Like I said, where are the MEANINGFUL changes? Hello?

I remember those snack food machines and the vendors during lunch when I was in high school in the late 1980s and never gave a seond thought about the nutritional value of what I was eating. If it tasted good and I wanted it, then I bought it. Of course, that may explain how I got to be so fat, too. :)

While I like the idea of giving kids a choice of better food options while at school, this agreement does NOT stop kids from going by their local corner convenience store on the way to or on the way home from school. It's like banning the sale of drugs on school grounds. That's all well and good until the students step off of school property and on the streets. At that point, all bets are off and the net result is the same as it was before.

An agreement like this one from Clinton and the AHA is like having a nonsmoking section in a restaurant that allows smokers to puff away without the use of a smoke vent. You can ban smoking all you want in the nonsmoking section, but you and I both know that doesn't keep the smoke from traveling into that section, thus rendering the distinction between the two sections completely irrelevant. The same goes for what Clinton and the AHA have brokered. This deal won't stop childhood obesity. Not by a long shot!

Okay, let's just pretend for a moment that these changes WILL make a difference. What are they asking these companies to alter about their products to make them "healthier?" Here are the new criteria for allowable foods sold at schools under the agreement:

1. Calories from fat limited to 35 percent
2. Calories from saturated fat limited to 10 percent
3. Sugar by weight is limited to 10 percent
4. Sodium is limited to 480mg, except for soup

Again we see the continuing ramifications of how scared people are of fat and even saturated fat. While it is noble they are limiting sugar to 10 percent by weight, that's still not doing anything about the excessive carbohydrates that many of these products contain which then turn into sugar when it is absorbed by the body. Are we so ignorant as a society that we think sugar is the only thing that makes your blood sugar rise? Finally, salt is a non-issue except for those who are salt-sensitive.

Even low-fat diet advocate Dr. Dean Ornish said in my recent interview with him that he doesn't like the influx of low-fat and fat-free snack food products because they are still not healthy choices for people to consume.

"People are going out and eating the Snackwell cookies and the fat-free desserts and cakes that may be very low in fat, but very high in sugar--I've never recommended that which is why I've been more explicit in clarifying that," Ornish said during the interview.

Despite all of this, data will begin being collected by the AHA and the Clinton Foundation to measure the impact of these changes ever other year over the next four years. Again, any changes will be minimal at best until we get a better handle on what is causing obesity--namely the excessive consumption of carbohydrates, including those found in low-fat products like baked potato chips, pretzels, 10% fruit juices, and so much more. Selling these as "healthy" foods is a farce!

Now the junk food companies involved in this agreement are going to begin "taking steps to make snacks more nutritious."

Oh joy, what do we have to look forward to? Hmmm, how about low-fat, whole wheat Twinkies sweetened with aspartame and/or maltitol? Yummy. Or perhaps we'll see, as one of my readers shared with me, vendor sandwiches made with Wonder Bread, anti-bacterial-sprayed bologna slices, and eggless Miracle Whip? Oh, the kiddies will be clamoring for them!

Who are we kidding people? Kids won't go for this stuff unless they are educated better about why they shouldn't eat the junk food. Our education system is eager to tell children about sex and sharing with them information about that, but there's nary a mention of how fat, protein and carbohydrates work to fuel the body and make it work. Now THERE is something meaningful to start teaching kids in schools.

We're stuck in a nutritional abyss nowadays and there doesn't seem to be an easy way out of it. Childhood obesity can be prevented, but that won't happen until some major barriers are torn down for good--namely that eating fat is bad for you, eating excessive carbohydrates is good for you, and that there are no consequences to eating junk food. All of these so-called axioms in our society are WRONG as wrong can be. We must continue to strive to share with others the truth.

10-8-06 UPDATE: You really should check out some of the comments I'm getting to this post over at LowCarbNewsline.com. Many of them think my points are invalid. What say you?

10-8-06 UPDATE: The response to this post continues with the following e-mail I received about it today.

I go to your web site because I am very interested in keeping up my low-carb lifestyle. When I want GOP political BS I can go to FOX news. By the way, you lost 180 pounds and good for you but you did not cure cancer! Maybe you should lose another 180 pounds of ego and your self-importance.

OUCH! LOL! Sigh, I miss stirring up political debate like I did long before I ever thought about livin' la vida low-carb. But, alas, I don't do that on a regular basis anymore. As I said at the very beginning, I don't like to bring up politics in this forum unless it is pertinent to what I discuss here on a regular basis. Today, it was.

By the way, I have a parting question for this person who raked me over the coals--Did Bill Clinton cure cancer?

McDonald's Fighting Childhood Obesity And Diabetes? Ha! Now That's A Good One!

McDonald's President Alvarez says they are committed to making healthy kids

You'll know we are in the last days on Earth when:

- The Chicago Cubs win the World Series
- Rosie O'Donnell gets married to Tom Cruise
- Hillary Clinton becomes President of the United States
- McDonald's donates $2 million to obesity research

Oh, wait a minute, that last one is actually TRUE! REALLY!

This Reuters story provides all the details about how McDonald's Corp. has agreed to make the large donation to fund childhood obesity and diabetes research. I'm not kidding, they really are donating money to look into why kids are getting chubby.

Obviously feeling the public pressue regarding their high-carb, junk food offerings, McDonald's decided it was time to partner up with biomedical scientists at the California-based Scripps Institute for the first time in their company's history to look into ways to curb childhood obesity rates.

McDonald's President and Chief Operating Officer Ralph Alvarez said it is the goal of McDonald's to "make a difference in the lives of children."

"The collaboration with Scripps Research is an extension of McDonald's long-standing commitment to the well-being of children around the world," he said. "Everything that we keep on seeing is the whole issue of childhood obesity and the early onset of Type 2 diabetes has grown exponentially. We felt we needed to get greater education in this area."

Am I the only one who sees the incredible irony in this? Here we have the head of the #1 fast food company in the entire world talking about how much his company cares about the health of kids while at the same time they are marketing products directly to children that are arguably one of the root causes of childhood obesity. The fact that they threw a few pennies of their hundreds of billions of dollars in sales annually at obesity research does not get them off the hook from their culpability in the debate over rising childhood obesity. They hope it does, but it does not.

Fried junk food consumption has doubled among kids and a recent study showed that eating fast food makes you one-third fatter. Anyone who denies the contributing role of fast food in the current childhood obesity epidemic is either ignorant to the clear facts staring them in the face or they are simply protecting the financial interests of an industry that has a lot of explaining to do.

Meanwhile, McDonald's is working overtime trying to come across as a caring company when it comes to healthy living by doing such meaningless gestures as removing the "Super Size" from the menu and showing Ronald McDonald playing sports in television ad. Whoopdee freakin' doo! You're gonna have to do better than that if you're gonna convince people like me you are REALLY serious about improving the health and weight of the children you claim to care so much about.

Ever since Morgan Spurlock released his movie and book about McDonald's, the golden arches have been on a mission to convince the public that their food can be a part of a healthy diet. They even had people like this woman go on a McDiet to show you can lose weight eating at Mickey D's, too. While I don't think fast food is the only industry to blame for rising obesity, their unique part in this cannot be overlooked. If that's being too hard on McDonald's, then that's their problem. IT'S THE TRUTH!

So what does Alvarez think about the irony of McDonald's supporting scientific research into childhood obesity when most people universally agree that they are part of the problem?

"Ironic or not we're going to make a difference," he told Reuters. "You won't see those benefits short-term, in one to three years, because habits change over time. But as a major restaurant company, we need to be on the cutting edge of what's happening."

Okay, so you give a little money to this research--NOW WHAT?! What is going to change at the restaurant level, Mr. Alvarez? Anything? Sure, you come up with these high-sugar apple dippers that are about as unhealthy as everything else on your menu. But don't you market them as one of your healthy new products? Where's the integrity in that? Is that really all McDonald's can do is push some high-carb, low-fat products and think they're helping improve the health of children?

McDonald's certainly has the right to sell whatever they deem necessary to turn a profit, but what are the logical consequences of continually feeding that market with junk and more junk and more junk year after year? Obesity rates will just keep going through the roof with no end in sight. But McDonald's can proudly say they donated $2 million to childhood obesity and diabetes research, can't they? HA! Now that's a good one! What good does that do when people are still getting obese?

As I stated in a blog post earlier this week, childhood obesity doesn't need more money from companies like McDonald's to be solved. What we need is better education for children about what is causing them and their parents to get so fat. WAKE UP, AMERICA! We don't need to be eating fast food as part of our healthy lifestyle changes. We are partially to blame, too, because we keep subsidizing this garbage that companies like McDonald's is serving daily.

It's not the fat in the foods we are eating, but the excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates, starchy vegetables, white flour, and most of all SUGAR! Ironically, all of these things are VERY prevalent in the food at McDonald's. How does someone like Alvarez keep a clear conscious about what his company is doing to children and adults while spouting off the company line that McDonald's cares about the kids? That's the biggest load of corporate crap and he knows it, too!

The ultimate responsibility about what children are eating still falls on the parents and they need to practice restraint even when their children beg and plead to go to McDonald's. Trust me, when they get older and have a healthy body because of your wise decision to avoid McDonald's, they will thank you for it. Maybe if my mom had skipped taking us to McDonald's so much as a kid, we wouldn't have all ballooned into the morbidly obese adults that we all became.

Thankfully I was able to overcome my obesity problem, but it still haunts my brother Kevin and, to a lesser degree, my sister Beverly. These are the unintended consequences of the existence of companies like McDonald's. Whether they give $2 million, $20 million, or $200 million to childhood obesity research, nothing is going to change the fact that they are one of the primary reasons obesity is as bad as it is today. Call me whatever you want for saying that, but I challenge anyone to tell me it isn't true.

Childhood Obesity Doesn't Need More Money, But Better Education

Dr. Koplan lobbies for more funds to reverse childhood obesity rates

The barrage of bad news regarding childhood obesity continues with this Associated Press story about a new report released this week by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) detailing a gloomy forecast for America's youngsters and their ever-increasing weight problem.

In the report from IOM's Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity entitled "Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up?," the panel looked at childhood obesity to see if any progress had been made over the past two years regarding turning the tide towards further weight increases by children as the trend has been. What they found is that the problem is getting worse despite attempts on the federal government level to implement pro-active ways to combat it.

One of the key findings of the IOM panel was that one out of every five children in the United States will likely become obese by the year 2010, just three years from now. Because of this, the experts at IOM who participated in this report lament the seeming lack of funding for programs that have been implemented to help combat childhood obesity.

Lead panelist Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, former U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director, chairman of the IOM Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity and the current vice president of Academic Health Affairs at Woodruff Health Sciences Center at the Atlanta-based Emory University, said he is encouraged by the number of initiatives that have been sprouting up in pockets across the country to help reduce childhood obesity, but admits they still don't know which programs are working the best to help kids lose weight and get healthy.

Dr. Koplan added that a task force needs to be created to determine the best methods for bringing about the necessary changes that need to happen and that national health leaders need to step up to the plate to help with this "major health problem."

"Is this as important as stockpiling antibiotics or buying vaccines? I think it is," Dr. Koplan exclaimed. "It's of a different nature than acute infectious threats, but it needs to be taken just as seriously."

Absolutely, Dr. Koplan! But why do we expect childhood obesity rates to change when the same old recommendations that have been used for the past three decades have remained unchanged? There are many reasons why childhood obesity has not gotten any better, not the least of which is our government's lack of acknowledging that we have a problem in the first place.

However, even if they do fess up to the fact that our kids are getting fatter and fatter, all we get from our government is another gimmicky answer like the Kid's Food Pyramid that doesn't translate into sound nutritional advice for children to adhere to. Kids these days are bombarded with junk food ads but it is the parents who need to take ownership for this problem and responsibility for their children's eating and fitness routine.

Dr. Koplan is right to be concerned about the issue of childhood obesity because he knows the problems that lie ahead for those children who cannot manage their weight heading into adulthood. A recent Harvard study revealed the startling news that children who are obese at the age of 18 were much more likely to die prematurely as early as in their 30's! EEEK! This is EXTREMELY serious and real changes need to be implemented as soon as possible. And, no, giving our kids weighted toys is NOT the answer!

But neither is throwing more money at the problem. I disagree with Dr. Koplan on this point because pumping more tax dollars into programs that are dubious at best will do nothing but waste the funds that are supposed to be helping educate kids about proper nutrition and fitness. Pointing fingers at budget cuts certainly does not address the root cause of the problem.

This issue reminds me of the subject of education spending. People get in such a tizzy when you talk about cutting funding for schools and education. BUT YOU CAN'T DO THAT, IT'S FOR OUR CHILDREN! Um, yes, it is for the children which is important, but there are ways to better maximize the use of those funds in a manner that will produce better results with less burden on the taxpayers.

And the same goes for childhood obesity. Increasing the budget for programs like VERB, a $59 million government marketing campaign in 2005 to make exercise look "cool" to tweens, is unrealistic to sustain over the long-term without a measureable difference in childhood obesity rates. Nevertheless, the IOM panel said the withdrawal of funding for VERB shows the lack of "commitment to obesity prevention within government."

Oh please, no it doesn't. It simply means the government is wanting to get more bang for the buck with the tax dollars spent on such programs and they didn't see that happening. If childhood obesity was cut in half because of VERB, you better believe they'd be lined up with the funding quicker than you could say "Skinny Jimmy!"

But Dr. Koplan contends that the VERB program was working well enough and that the funding was pulled from it prematurely.

Now, the CDC is urging state and local governments to take the lesson learned from VERB to apply in every area of the country to see if childhood obesity rates can come down any at all. The story also cites a school snack program pushing more fruits and vegetables that has been implemented in 14 states, but again whines that there just isn't enough money to get the word out.

WAH WAH WAH! If the people who truly cared about childhood obesity would simply stop their bellyaching just long enough to realize how ignorant they sound asking for more money to address a problem they themselves even admit they don't know the answer to, then perhaps they would start to see there are viable and effective solutions to help curb childhood obesity that exist right under their noses.

Here are just a few of my suggestions:

First, parents need to stop turning a blind eye to their child's obesity problem. This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the mother and father of that obese child, even if it means they need to do something about their own weight problem.

Second, we need to stop fooling kids into thinking they have to eat a low-fat diet to be healthy. With the negative effect of sugar and refined carbohydrates on our bodies, it's certainly not a bad idea to get children used to eating a controlled-carb diet with nutritious meals loaded with essential nutrients their growing bodies need without the excessive amounts of sugar, high fructose corn syrup and just plain junk food that they are stuffing in their mouths these days.

Third, while many believe a 100 percent obesity rate is inevitable in America, it doesn't have to be if each individual family unit does what it has to do to bring about lifestyle changes that need to happen within themselves. Why wait on a government education program to tell your kid how to eat and exercise right when YOU CAN DO IT RIGHT NOW?!

This most certainly isn't the end of this discussion about childhood obesity, but rather a starting point that government and health leaders in the United States should be focusing their attention on rather than the next great "cool" ad campaign. Please stop bemoaing about how things aren't changing quickly enough and start looking at why the advice we've been spoon-fed for generations has been such a miserable bust! Therein lies the coveted answer to the childhood obesity crisis that could be reversed in very short order if we would enact meaningful changes like the ones I have suggested.

I remain hopeful, but realize the chances of this are slim to none.

You can e-mail Dr. Jeffrey Koplan at tthorst@emory.edu.

Extreme Low-Fat Farm Abusing Obese Kids

I was alerted to something quite disturbing today to say the least by my calorie-restriction friend April who told me about a California-based youth "fat farm" called Academy of the Sierras where overweight and obese children are being subject to an extreme low-fat diet consisting of nearly single-digit fat intake daily! April blogged about this here initially, then here, and finally here.

What is most incredible is the diet they have these kids eating is robbing them of some of the essential nutrients their bodies need for them to continue to grow into the healthy adults they are becoming. While they are getting 70g protein and 20g fiber, they are ONLY being fed a measly 10g fat. JUST TEN GRAMS! That's all they get daily. Yikes! They get to eat all the soups, salads, fat-free (and HIGH sugar, by the way) yogurt, fruits and vegetables as part of this wonder diet plan. The leaders of this program claim the kids won't get hungry eating this way.

Well, I guess they don't get as hungry with all of that protein they are eating. But what about the healthy fats these kids NEED for a healthy body and improved overall health? Even the American Heart Association FINALLY admitted this year that proper fat intake is important. Studies have shown eating fat improves mental health. Are these people at the Academy of the Sierras even concerned about the damage they are causing to the developing brains of these children they have been given control over? Helllllloooo?

You would think with the results of a landmark 8-year study on low-fat diets earlier this year showing them to be the big fat lie that people who are livin' la vida low-carb knew them to be would end this madness about being afraid of eating fat as part of a healthy weight loss program. This all-too-obvious fact has apparently left the good folks at the Academy of the Sierras as they continue to live in the past with their dietary recommendations centered around the archaic teachings of Dr. Dean Ornish!

But isn't it borderline child abuse what the leaders of this program are doing to these poor kids? With new research PROVING the theories they are using to induce weight loss in these children -- namely an extreme low-fat diet -- is false, then why would they still insist on using these tactics when there are much better ways to bring about the same results in a healthier manner? They wouldn't need to change their program radically to make it just as effective for weight loss AND be more nutrient-dense.

They could still have the kids eat 70g protein and 20g fiber, but have them instead begin to limit the carbohydrates to 20g daily while allowing 30-40g fat MINIMUM daily and having them avoid sugar, white flour, starchy veggies and processed foods. Why wouldn't this work better for the kids and give them a more palatable menu to eat from?

Wanna see just a sampling of what these kids have to eat now:

low-fat pizza
very lean ground turkey tacos (EWWWW!)
fat free bean burritos
veggie egg white omelettes (where are the yolks?!)
oil-free Asian stir fries
innovative pastas (what the heck is that?!)
spice apple raisin pancakes
bagels with fat-free cream cheese
Berries (the best item on this menu!)
melon wedges
fat-free yogurt
Boca burgers (mmm, mmm Boca--NOT!)
sandwich bar with very lean ham and turkey
Mexican pizza
fat-free soups
fruit salad (can you say sugar?!)
honey chicken
veggie stir-fry
“spinach baked” potatoes (say who what is THAT?!)
frozen yogurt
salad bar with fat-free dressings
carrot sticks
fat-free potato chips with salsa (yucky poo!)
oatmeal raisin bars

Can you tell me what most of those foods contains gobs and gobs of? That's right, CARBOHYDRATES!!! Jeepers creepers people, let's just send the blood sugar of these kids into overdrive now with what we're feeding them. Sheeeeez! I remember eating an obsessively low-fat diet before and it's not fun at all. If my experience is any indication of what is going to happen to these kids when they get back home, then it would not surprise me to hear that most if not all of them rebel at their new way of eating and gain back every single pound they worked so hard to lose. I don't wish that on them, but it is almost inevitable with a low-fat diet as extreme as this one is.

You can express your concerns about this dangerous and abusive weight loss program for these adolescents by e-mailing them directly. You can address your e-mail to Phil Obbard who is the Executive Director for the Academy of the Sierras. Ask him to specifically answer your concerns about the lack of good fats in the diets these kids are being put on and let me know if you hear back from him or another representative. This blatant abuse by the Academy of the Sierra MUST be stopped immediately!