A Word About Organic Foods and Weight Loss

I have had several people tell me that they try to eat healthy. When asked about their eating habits, they simply reply "I always try to buy organic". Organic foods are often thought to confer health benefits. Several studies have been done to see if organic produce really is healthier. Results have been mixed. Some studies show that organic fruits and vegetables have slightly more vitamins and minerals than conventionally grown produce while some studies show no difference. Many different factors affect the amount of nutrients in produce including the soil, growing conditions, genetic make up of the seed and variety of the plant. Simply not applying pesticides does not make the produce healthier for you, it just makes it safer as it does not have pesticides. For example, Potato chips made from organic potatoes are just as bad for you as chips made from conventionally grown potato chips.

Do organic foods help you lose weight? In a recent study, researchers showed 100 study participants nutrition information for a regular Oreo cookie and the nutrition information for a similar cookie made with organic flour and sugar. The label clearly showed a serving size of 160 calories for both cookies. Even after reading the label, 38% of participants thought that the organic cookie had few calories than non-organic brands.

Just as organic foods have the same nutrients as non-organic, they also have the same calories. Those organic potato chips or Oreo type cookies have the same calories as their non-organic counterparts. As mentioned before in this blog, weight loss is a matter of eating fewer calories than you burn off.

Are organic foods worth eating if they do not offer more nutrition or lower calories? Reducing pesticide intake is important but organic foods typically cost more than non-organic foods. Whether to buy organic or not is a personal decision. Many people feel it is worth the cost while many others do not. If you do choose to buy organic, understand that organic foods will not help you lose weight.

Vitamins Are Important Too

When we think of dieting, we think of limiting calories. But when we limit calories, we are also decreasing the amount of vitamins and minerals we are eating too. If you just stop drinking soda or stop eating candy, your intake of vitamins and minerals will stay the same. But if you eat the same foods and just limit portion sizes, you are also limiting everything that comes in that food including carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins and minerals.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition recently reported on a study by Stanford University. The researchers placed 300 overweight or obese women on one of four diet plans (Atkins, Zone, LEARN or Ornish). Periodically, the women were asked what they were eating. The food was analyzed for 17 different nutrients. Not only did the women cut their daily caloric intake by 500 calories/day but they also cut their intake of 12 of those 17 nutrients. When cutting calories, it is very important that those calories you do eat are healthy calories so that you continue to receive the vitamins and minerals you need. If you are worried about not getting enough vitamins and minerals, you can take a multivitamin (choose one with 100% of most nutrients, stay away from those with very large doses.

An interesting note to this study is the intake of vitamins A, E, C and K went up on those on the Zone diet. This serves to show a diet with milk carbohydrate restriction which also includes beans and vegetables can still be healthy.

Meal Plans

When discussing weight loss, I am often asked for a meal plan for the person to follow. I really do not like meal plans. There are two kinds of meal plans. The first lists specific foods in specific quantities that you should eat. The other lists food groups in specific amounts such as 3 oz of protein and 1/2 cup of vegetables but you can choose the protein and the vegetable.


Yes, meal plans are easy as you are told exactly what to eat but they also have a number of drawbacks. First, the meal plan may include food you do not like. Do you really want to waste your calories eating food you do not enjoy? Also, there are many healthy foods that may not be listed on the meal plan. Just because it is not listed does not mean that you should not eat the food (if you like cherries which are very healthy but the meal plan does not list them, don't stop eating them!). Even 30 days worth of meal plans may not cover all of your favorite foods. What if the meal plan lists a food you cannot find? Do you know what you can substitute in its place? If you just use the meal plan for a guide (for instance, 3 oz of protein, 1/2 cup of vegetables rather than 3 oz of grilled salmon and 1/2 cup of broccoli), it can still be very limiting especially when you go out to eat. Restaurants meals will rarely follow your meal plan.


"But then", I'm asked, "how do I know what to eat?" I recommend you calculate the calories of everything you eat for at least three days (at least one day should be a Monday - Friday day and one day should be a weekend day). The easiest way to do this is to enter every bite of food that goes into your mouth into a program or website that will tabulate the calories. Some people enter the information throughout the day. Others will write down everything they eat and then enter it all at once. There are several sites that do this. I have used http://www.caloriecount.about.com/. Do not make any changes to your diet during this time.


Now that you have an analysis of what you typically eat, do you see any food that has a surprising amount of calories? Is there a particular meal of the day that has the most calories? Do more than 200 calories come from each snack? These are the parts of your diet that you need to work on.


For food that has a surprising amount of calories, try to find a healthier version or variety. It may be as simple as switching ingredients such as swapping low fat milk for whole milk or a lite mayo for regular mayo. You may just need to make a healthier food choice such as an apple in place of a cookie or a lite popcorn in place of chips. Does a large number of calories come from beverages such as soda or juice? Try sparkling water with a splash of juice or a flavored water (check the label for calories). You can even make your own refreshing water by adding lemons and cucumbers to water. If you really do not want to give up that food, try eating a smaller portion. You may need to add in some healthier food to fill you up. For example, one burrito with a vegetable rather than two burritos.


Do your dinners have twice the calories of your lunch? Try eating a little larger lunch or a healthy snack before dinner to reduce hunger at dinner time. If you are not as hungry, you should eat less.


Are your snacks too large? I usually recommend keeping snacks to less than 200 calories each. See a previous blog for some lower calorie snacks.


Go to http://www.mypyramid.gov/ to find out how many servings of each food group you should have per day. Do you meet the recommendations or exceed them? Are your vegetable or fruit servings low? Adding fruits and vegetables to the diet will help make you full so that you eat less of teh higher calorie food.

Once you are able to get your calorie intake to meet your recommended calorie level and have been able to meet your pyramid recommendations, you can try to tweak your food to make it more healthy. Substitute whole grain bread for "wheat" bread, try a whole grain cereal (ex Shredded Wheat) rather than a sugary cereal (ex Captain Crunch). Try to choose fruits and vegetables in a variety of colors (red, green, orange, purple/blue). Bake rather than fry. If you do fry, use a vegetable oil rather than butter.

In this way, you can keep many of your favorite foods and add foods that you like. Sticking to a "diet" of food you choose and like is much easier than adhering to a diet someone else chose for you.

Ever have one of those days where you feel that you cannot get enough to eat? Ever wonder why? Sometimes, we know we are extra hungry because we did not eat much the day before or because we did more physical activity than usual. Other times, there appears to be no reason for it. One possible explanation has to do not so much with how much we ate but with what we ate the day before.

A study was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation looking at the effects of different types of fat on appetite. Some mice were given palmitic fat for three days in a row. Palmitic fat is a saturated fat found in butter and beef. The rest of the mice were given oleic fat which is an unsaturated fat (healthier than saturated fat) normally found in nuts, olive oil and fish. After 3 days, the mice on the palmitic fat became resistant to the appetite suppressing hormones leptin and insulin. This means that the mice did not feel full and stop eating as early as they did before the palmitic fat. This led to increased calorie intake which will lead to weight gain if continued. Studies in humans have had similar results showing increased calorie intake the day after a fast food meal.

What to do? It would be easy to say, "don't eat saturated fats" but that is not always possible or desirable (ever have a craving for a cheeseburger and fries?). Now that we are aware of the effect of a high saturated fat meal, we can take steps to help prevent overeating.

• Keep this phenomena in mind and make a conscious effort to eat healthy the next day
• Do not let yourself become too hungry. Have a snack between meals.
• Start off the meal with a salad to help fill you up with minimal calories
• Eat slower than usual to allow your body the time to feel full.