Air date: October 4, 2011
- The 5 eating habits making you fat
- Hidden dangers of too much fat
- Hidden dangers in the home
- Hidden antioxidants on your home
- After the show
Could a few small changes to your eating habits enable the weight loss you've been hoping for? How much time do you spend making food choices, how about portion choices? Usually none! Find out the 5 eating habits that are making you fat!
Why we are all guilty of mindless eating? Packing, portions, and not paying attention top the list. Eating on a large plate encourages a large portion. Packaging can fool us to believe we are eating fewer calories then what we are actually eating. A clear bowl can make you eat more. These are all psychological inducers to over eating and many of us encounter at least one of these challenges at every meal.
It takes 20 minutes for the message that stomach is full can reach the brain. If we are not paying attention to portions and calories then more often then not we continue to eat during that 20 minutes. [Then guess what, 20 minutes later you feel stuffed to capacity!]
The majority of over-eating issues have to do with mindless eating. If we are not aware of how many calories a food contains or how big a serving size is then we will not know our total intake with the end result consuming more calories for out size leading to more weight gain.
Rovenia Brock, PhD and nutrition coach says we need to break the mindless eating habit by training ourselves to make mindful food choices. She says if you don't need it, you don't eat it.
The 5 Habits Making You Fat
Bad Eating Habit #1: Low-fat food labels
Scenario: kitchen pantry
Every other label in the example pantry says “Low Fat”. The low fat label encourages us to eat more because we think the food contains fewer calories. Not true. Low fat does not mean low calories. When fat is removed from these foods something has to be added to satisfy our taste buds and that means more sugar and, often, more flour.
Dr. Oz conducted a hidden camera experiment inspired by a Cornell laboratory study. Will a low fat label make a difference in how much people eat?
The same snack mix was put in two bags, one labeled as low fat the other labeled regular. Two groups watched an episode of Dr. Oz and snacked. After the viewing, the bags were measured. The low fat bag viewers ate 65% more which equated to 80 more calories. Low fat on the label gives us a false belief about what we are eating.
An in-studio taste test of a regular cookie and a low fat version of the same cookie showed that the tester couldn't distinguish between the two cookies. So they taste the same but how many calories for each cookie? The low fat cookie contained 50 calories and the regular cookie had 53 calories. A difference of only 3 calories! Low fat is not necessarily low calories.
In the stomach, the two cookies are very different. Fats used in the regular cookie take longer to digest keeping the stomach active and busy allowing a feeling of fullness to last longer. Sugar, used in greater amounts in the low fat cookie in place of fat, rushes through the stomach to the intestines and straight into the blood stream causing a sugar rush then eventually a sugar crash.
A low fat label should be a clue to look closely at the amount of calories listed on the labels. Dr. Brock said that low fat labels on natural foods, such as dairy products, is OK.
[I disagree. Full fat dairy products contain fats that are necessary for optimum functioning of the brain and heart – saturated fat. GASP! Yes, the body requires small amounts of healthy forms of saturated fat to fuel both the heart and the brain. I believe, it's important to look for organic dairy products to reduce exposure to harmful pesticides.]
Bad Eating Habit #2: Social eating
Scenario: dinner table
What habit makes you heavy at the dinner table? Eating with others! Social eating influences how much you eat. When you eat with others you tend to consume more calories than you think.
Eating with one friend can increase food intake by 35%, with four people at the table intake is 75% more, 7 people means 96% more food is eaten. The average American eats out 3 times a week enabling the packing on of 23 lbs over time. [We eat out at most twice in a month and often go several months without eating out! I am saving a lot of money and a lot of pounds!]
To reduce the amount of food you eat at the table, pace yourself with slowest eater at the table and be the last person to start eating.
Bad Eating Habit #3: Multi-task while eating
Scenario: living room
Eating while watching television and while working on the computer leads use to ignore how much we are eating. Eating while preparing meals, eating in the car, and standing while eating all take our mind off what and how much we are eating. Take 15 minutes to sit down and enjoy your meals without any distractions and you'll probably find you eat less.
Bad Eating Habit #4: Eating straight out of the package
Scenario: kitchen counter
Don't ever do it! There is no way to determine how much you have eaten. A study discussed on the show found that eating out of the package caused the consumption of 134 calories more than eating out of a bowl.
Instead, put the snack on a plate and then eat it. Use a small plate for a snack or put it in a small bag so that you are only consuming one serving instead of the entire bag or box of food.
Bad Eating Habit #4: Artificial sweeteners
Artificial sweeteners are the number one bad habit that causes weight gain. Why? The average American consumes 24 lbs of artificial sweeteners per year in an effort to avoid eating sugar. Artificial sweeteners disrupts the regulatory system that controls hunger. The problem is that the body is expecting calories and doesn't get it instead the body creates more cravings. They also desensitize the taste buds to sugar.
In another hidden camera test with two groups of people, Dr. Oz wanted to see if people prefer artificial sweeteners will eat more cake than people who prefer sugar. Both groups were given the same cake and asked to watch the same episode of The Dr. Oz Show. In the sugar group a few people ate all the cake, many had just a bite and several refused the cake altogether. Of the artificial sweetener group 75% at half the cake, 3 ate all the cake. Overall the artificial sweetener group ate twice as much cake as the sugar group.
A member of each group appeared on the stage and asked how they perceived the level sweetness in the cake. From the artificial sweetener group, a woman said she tasted very little sugar from the cake while the woman from the sugar group thought it tasted extremely sweet.
Food sources of artificial sweeteners are very surprising from baby food to vitamins to sauces and cereal. Look on the label for these artificial sweeteners: saccharin, aspartame, sucrolase, neotame, acesulfame.
How can you break the artificial sweetener habit? Weaning from it is the best approach. Mix some sugar in with the artificial sweetener and over time increase the ratio of sugar until the taste buds have shifted preference.
Dr. Oz says sugar is a reasonable sweetener because it doesn't have many calories per serving but, be mindful of how much sugar is consumed in a day. Honey, agave and coconut sap sugar were also recommended. Coconut sap sugar comes from where you would think – the sap of coconuts – and has a low glycemic index. Use it as you would sugar.
The Hidden Danger of Too Much Fat
It can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as a golf ball. Gallstones! A family history of gallstones or gallbladder disease can provide you with the negative inheritance of a genetic disposition of experiencing the same fate. The gallbladder is a sack located under the liver with a system of ducts leading to the liver, pancreas and stomach.
[According to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearing House, the liver makes bile and sends it to the gallbladder for storage until needed. When needed, the bile along with enzymes from the pancreas are released into the digestive tract to break down food and liquids.
Scientists believe cholesterol stones form when bile contains too much cholesterol, too much bilirubin, or not enough bile salts, or when the gallbladder does not empty completely or often enough. The reason these imbalances occur is not known.]
A big gallstone, formed in the gallbladder, will be pushed out, along with bile but, if the stone is larger then the duct system it will get stuck and block further bile from being released. According to Dr. Oz, consuming fatty foods causes the gallbladder to spasm and if a stone is present there can be pain, lots of pain.
The food we eat travels through the stomach to be broken down by acid and moved into the intestines. Here the food looks rather white. Yellowish-looking bile meets up with the food melting it down to liquid so nutrients can be absorbed into the bloodstream. The remaining bits turn brown and are excreted, that's poop. With gallstones, the bile duct is blocked, and the gallbladder spasms and not enough bile is released to breakdown food. Without that bile to breakdown, nutrients are not absorbed, the food stays white and the resulting poop is white.
[Read here to learn more about what pee and poop can tell you about your health.]
To reduce the chances of developing gallstones, try substituting vegetarian protein for animal proteins occasionally to reduce the amount of cholesterol-containing fat consumed. Dr. Oz further recommended drinking two cups of coffee per day – note: the cream and sugar contributes to stones.
Hidden Health Hazards In Your House
County Health Inspector, Peter Delucia, toured the home of a Dr. Oz fan to see what hidden health hazards may be lurking in her home. He found mold in the insulating foam around refridgerator door, lead paint on an old radiator, accumulated dryer lint in the vent.
First Hidden Health Hazard
Front-loading washers are prone to mold build up. This style washer does not get rid of water easily allowing for mold to flourish.
Solution: clean the inside of the washer after each use and run a bleach load every week. Mold can lead to asthma as well as other health issues. Also, keep the door to the washer open between loads to aid in keeping the drum dry.
[I understand that front-loading washers save water and energy but to have to clean out the drum of the washer after every use sounds like too much work. It does make my clunky top-loader look very attractive.]
Second Hidden Health Hazard
The water temperature in your bathroom could be too hot leading to severe burns. When the water temperature goes from 120F to 130F, the time it takes to burn skin goes from minutes to seconds. Severe burns can occur when water temperatures reach, or exceed, 140F.
Solution: set your home hot water heater to 120F and test faucet water temperature with simple kitchen thermometer. At 120F, normal sanitation is achieved, money is saved and your family is safer.
Hidden Antioxidants in Your Kitchen
What all-star antioxidant found in chili keeps you thin?
Red beans or corn?
Red beans cost about $0.13 per cup [dried] and can prevent colon cancer. [Red beans are also high in protein and fiber.]
What all-star carbohydrate keeps the heart healthy?
Brown rice or potatoes?
Brown rice costs about $0.12 per serving and contributes to a young and healthy heart as well as arteries.
Which antioxidant all-star is found in 90% of American kitchen?
Eggs or Cornflakes?
Eggs contain choline and are low calorie at 70 per egg..
[Choline is part of the B-Vitamin family and supports the structure of cells contributing to efficient transmission of messages from cells supporting memory and muscle control.]
Dr. Oz shared that California leads the nation in organic chicken production. [Yeah for my home state!]
After the Show on Local News
Dr. Oz did a little spot about how to snack smart if you are going to multi-task. Chew 10 times before swallowing, use small plates and small servings even if you have to get up and get another serving, you will be more mindful of portions.
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