Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

A University of North Carolina study shows that liquid calories are to blame for the obesity rates in the United States. You can see the slideshow presentation from them here:

• University of North Carolina: U.S. Diet and the Role of Beverages – Power Point Presentation

Since we don’t tend to eat less food when we consume more liquid calories, and their study shows that consumption of extra calories when they are in drinks is linked to weight gain, they have suggested the following recommendations for drink consumption:

• Go with water: Women should drink up to 9 servings of water a day and they recommend 13 servings of water for men.

• Unsweetened coffee and tea: As long as you aren’t using any type of sweetener at all, coffee and tea can have some positive health benefits. They recommend a maximum of 4 servings of coffee and 8 servings of tea a day.

• Skim/lowfat milk or fortified unsweetened soy drinks: The research on the benefits of milk is still iffy according to UNC, but they still recommend up to 2 servings a day.

• Diet soft drinks and coffe or tea sweetened with artificial sweetener: Even though these drinks are calorie free, they may condition a preference for sweetness. Because of this, they are to be used in moderation. They recommend up to 4 servings a day.

• 100% fruit juices, whole milk and sports drinks: The University of North Carolina sees little nutritional benefit in these drinks and recommends limiting consumption of up to 1 serving a day.

• Soft drinks and juice drinks: Also high in sugar, they recommend no more than 1 serving a day.

It looks like the best benefits are those to be had by drinking water. I’ve found that I feel better when I replace soda with water, so I have to agree with them. Here is a handy graphic to visualize what your beverage choices are:

Via: Liquid calories can pile on pounds – Orlando Sentinel

Some people believe that purchasing organically grown food is an ethical decision. The extra cost of the food guarantees that we are treating the earth kindly. Here is a discussion of these thoughts:

• Get Rich Slowly » Organic Produce: Price vs. Ethics

If you are confused or wondering what is best for you, you’re not alone.

“It is difficult for me to grasp all of the implications involved in the complex web of food production: price vs. organic. vs. healthfulness vs. locally-produced vs. sustainable farming vs. economy of scale. I’m fortunate to live in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, which is a richly productive region. During the summer I can buy cheap local produce from roadside stands, produce that tastes better than anything I can buy in a store. (And, of course, we grow many of our own favorites.)”

Somehow, I’ve convinced myself that organic food tastes better. In the case of vegetables, that’s usually the case. I don’t know if it’s because organic markets keep their food fresher or if I’ve somehow fooled myself. I guess it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that I’m eating my fruits and vegetables, whether they are organic or not.

The research says that dieting with friends in a group is better than dieting alone.

• FOXNews.com – Dieting in Groups Better Than Dieting Alone – Health News | Current Health News | Medical News

They found that a lot of people gain weight back a year after losing it:

“People in the Weight Watchers and Rosemary Conley “Eat Yourself Slim Diet and Fitness Plan” (a British low-fat diet and exercise program) programs — which both involved group meetings — were more likely to have stuck with their programs for a year.”

I have never really dieted with a friend except in high school and that was more of a bulimia club than a healthy diet support group. I have such a hard time talking about my weight issues with the people that I know that it’s hard for me to even imagine dieting with a group of friends. I don’t want anyone asking me what I put in mouth today.

Maybe that’s why I still struggle sometimes.

Via: iPortion

Research has shown that part of being able to effectively lose weight involves journaling your food and exercise.

How do you journal your food and exercise?

Do you use a computer?

Do you use an online service?

Do you write it down on paper?

What has worked the best for you?

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

Anyone who has gone to see Pixar’s new movie, Cars, was treated to a trailer for Ratatouille. It’s a movie about a rat with a taste for good food.

What bothers me is this rat, who is obsessed with good food to the point that he is willing to risk his life is thin. Quite frankly, I haven’t found this to be true. His fat friend who doesn’t care what he eats gives him advice.

“You know if you can sort of muscle your way past the gag reflex all kinds of food possibilities open up.”

Of course, all my friends who don’t really care what they eat tend to be thin and forget to eat all the time. Why can’t I have that problem?

Does the world really need a tale about a food obsessed rat? Watching this trailer made the hackles on my back raise and I don’t really know why.

The Hillbilly Housewife has another tip for you. This time it’s about Regular Ground Beef vs. Extra Lean Ground Beef. So many of my family’s recipes require ground beef that it’s something that I still use on a regular basis. Instead of spending the extra money to get the leaner beef, here is a technique to make regular ground beef less fatty.

• Hillbilly Housewife – Reducing the Fat Content of Regular Ground Beef by Draining and Rinsing

I haven’t tried this, but it seems like it would work. My only problem is that I wouldn’t know how to count the calories unless I just believed her. I know that draining any ground beef and rinsing it like this would help it be less fatty, but I think I would be tempted to count it as the higher calorie count “just to be safe.”

Via: Get Rich Slowly » The Hillbilly Housewife

Continuing the idea that healthy eating doesn’t have to be expensive, Get Rich Slowly has this entry entitled Healthy Food on an Unhealthy Budget. It’s a good list of foods that are inexpensive, yet healthy.

• Get Rich Slowly » Healthy Food on an Unhealthy Budget

There are so many ideas in that entry that I can’t even start to list them here. Give them a click and find out how to trim your budget and your waist there.

Via: popurls.com | popular urls to the latest web buzz

So many times I hear the excuse that eating healthy is too expensive.

Why do you think people have the idea that eating healthy is expensive?

What healthy foods have you found that are inexpensive and tasty?

What foods that are healthy are the most expensive?

What are your favorite recipes for healthy food?

The Question of the Week is meant to be an Inner Workout for you. Find some time during the week and allow yourself to write the answers to the questions posted. You can write them on paper, on a word processor or here in the comments section. Whatever works for you as long as you do it.

Keep writing until you find out something about yourself that you didn’t know before. I’ve also heard that it works to keep writing until you cry, but that doesn’t really work for me. Whatever works for you. Just keep writing until it feels right.

I’ve said before that eating healthy doesn’t have to be expensive. Now, the Hillbilly Housewife has proven me right. She has a week-long menu of food for 4-6 people that costs only 45 dollars. She is assuming that your kitchen is bare and doesn’t even have baking soda, so the ingredients might be less expensive to purchase if you have a well-stocked kitchen.

Not only is it inexpensive, but she has included the nutrition information and the calorie-counts for each day. They average 1700 calories a day, so she has created a perfect healthy diet on a LOW budget.

• Hillbilly Housewife – $45 Emergency Menu for 4 to 6

Next time I hear people say it’s too expensive to buy healthy food, I’ll just laugh to myself and know better, because I found the Hillbilly Housewife.

Via: Get Rich Slowly » The Hillbilly Housewife

Sometimes eating and obsessing about food gets me to to the point where I just wish I could have a simple thing that I could just throw in my purse and never have to worry about again. Obviously, The Last Angry Young Man feels the same way:

“Imagine going to the grocery store only once every 6 months. Imagine paying less than a dollar per meal. Imagine never washing dishes, chopping vegetables or setting the table ever again. It sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”

“But can a human subsist on a constant diet of pelletized, nutritionally complete food like puppies and monkeys do? For the good of human kind, I’m about to find out. On June 3, 2006, I began my week of eating nothing but monkey chow: ‘a complete and balanced diet for the nutrition of primates, including the great apes.'”

He is logging his endeavor at The Monkey Chow Diaries.

• The Monkey Chow Diaries

The American Council on Science and Health noticed his experiment and have logged their opinions on his diet. They agree that the monkey chow is complete nutrition for humans and suspect that he will lose weight on the diet because the food is monotonous and unpalatable.

• ACSH > The Ultimate Convenience Diet: Monkey Chow > By Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., Jeff Stier, Esq.

It’s interesting to watch his reaction to eating the food for the first time and even more interesting to hear his simple resignation the second day. He is saving about $600 a month by eating monkey chow instead of restaurant and home-cooked food. I’m excited to see what this experiment brings.

Via: Freakonomics Blog » The Monkey Chow diet