Goals, Exercise and the Overall Picture (Part 3 of 3)

His main point was to eat food closer to how it grows.  An orange is great, orange juice is farther from its natural state so not as good and an orange flavored Popsicle has probably never met an orange and so is even less healthy although it does have orange in the name.  A baked potato is great until you cover it in cheese, sour cream, onion, chili and anything else you can think of.  It doesn’t have to be organic (although organic is great) but the closer to how it naturally grow the healthier a choice it will be.  He did jokingly say that Iceberg lettuce was the one vegetable that didn’t count because it has almost no nutritional value and you could get the same nutritional value from a glass of water.  Cocoa in its natural form is good for you but once it has been turned into chocolate then all the good has been processed out of it – sorry I was sad to hear that also.  I myself have always considered dark chocolate as a health food and a part of my daily regiment.   When asked about the myth that it is bad to eat right before bed because it will be converted to fat – David said that it is not when you eat but what you eat.  A greasy burger at lunch is still not as good for you as a salad and whole grain bread just before bed.

The major lessons were:

•                 Eat more plant based foods
•                 Eat less animal fat (saturated)
•                 Eat closer to the way it grows
•                 Physical activity 4+ days a week

• 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise

and/or

• 75 minutes per week of intense exercise

The Mediterranean Diet is a good example of this.  People who live in the Mediterranean tend to live long and healthy lives and a part of that is due to their diet.  Generally their diet consists of whole grain, fresh green vegetables, daily exercise, and alcohol in moderation (a single glass or less per day).  David did warn that alcohol was not recommended especially for people who are not able to handle it in moderation only.   Our population has a growing subpopulation of people over 100 years old.  Due to advances in medical treatment and better nutrition, we are living longer then ever.  It is important that we take care of ourselves now so we have a good quality of life well into the future.  David said that there are 7 things that most people over 100 years old have in common.  He told us two of the seven things – Be Optiamistic and Adapt to Lose.

We all have a few pounds that we want to shed and would love for there to be a quick fix or a pill that we can take to lose the weight.  The easiest way to lose weight isn’t in a magic pill it is eating right and regular exercise – not just that month at the gym just after New Years.  It is important to know that scales don’t tell the whole story.  Our weight will fluctuate due to water weight and other factors.  A better way to judge your healthy rather then how much you weight is what your waist size is.  This is a better predictor then Body Mass Index (BMI) or a height/weight table.  Women should have about a 35 inch waist while men should have about a 40 inch waist.  David said that gut fat is more dangerous then hip fat.  The best way to slim down is to exercise at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes per week of strenuous exercise.  In addition, eat less fat, salt, and sugar, eat more fish (unless you are a vegetarian), read the food labels and know the numbers and remember that scales don’t tell the whole story.  Replace the scale with a tape measure.

Daily Goals

• 30 grams of Fiber
• 50 grams of Fat (less animal, more plant)
• 4 ½ cups of Fruit/Vegetables
• Exercise 150 min moderate per week or 75 min intensive per week
• 1500mg of Sodium

Sugar is not endorsed because we can live without it.  Eat less sugar if you can’t live without it especially less processed sugar – get your sugar from your food not put it in your food.  Frequency and Quantity – how much and how often make the difference.   The main thing that he said over and over again is

EAT CLOSER TO THE WAY IT GROWS!

This seminar was very informative to me and has changed how my family is eating (although my husband is less then excited about some of the changes).  I hope that these blogs have helped to pass this information on to you.  Our main goal is to keep you living a long and healthy life.

Fats, Carbohydrates and Smoking (Part 2 of 3)

Fat

He also talked about managing your fat intake because that is always going to be where the highest calories are.  A good daily level of fat intake for an adult is 50 grams.  The average person eats about 82 grams of fat daily.  He said don’t count your calories but count where they come from.  For example 1 cup of protein is 120 calories, 1 cup of good carbohydrates is 400 calories, 1 cup of not good carbohydrates is 800 calories, and 1 cup of fat is 2000 calories.  So fat will always have the higher calories per serving then other foods.   There are three types of fat – monounsaturated fat (from plants), polyunsaturated fat (from plants) and saturated fats (from animals).  Saturated fat is from animals and is considered the “bad” fat.  Monounsaturated fats – olive oil, peanut oil and canola oil are the best fats for you.  Polyunsaturated fats are everything else and are ok for you but not as good as monounsaturated.  Both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are considered “good” fats.  All fats are made up of all three types of fat and are just categorized according to their major component.  Cholesterol only comes from foods that come from an animal originally – no exceptions!  So if a product only contains veggies and has a big label saying it is cholesterol free than that is true but not something special that the manufacture did.  Nuts are a great source of protein but nuts also contain fat – chestnuts are the only nuts that are low fat.  Nuts are still great to eat but remember that everything in moderation.   If you eat too many nuts you will get fat but at least it won’t directly give you a heart ache.

One of the debates that he did cover was butter vs margarine.  I personally love my butter.   Butter is rendered from animal fats.   Margarine is partially hydrogenated corn oil and does contain transfats.  So is a comparison of corn oil, margarine, and butter – 11 grams each:  corn oil has 9 grams of good fat and 2 grams of bad, margarine has 7 grams good and 4 grams of bad, and butter has 4 grams of good and 7 grams of bad plus you get cholesterol.  So veggie oil is best but not so easy to spread on you toast so given the choice between butter and margarine – margarine wins because it is still better for you in the end but look for transfat free margarine.

You don’t have to become a vegetarian but be aware of what you are eating and how to make better choices.  Fats are usually what we associate with good taste which is why fat free used to be taste-free too, but food development has come a long way and fat-free choices are better able to fool your tongue.  There are easy ways to cut back over time.  David Meinz said that drinking a 6 oz glass of whole milk was comparable to eating two restaurant pads of butter.  2% Milk equaled about 1 ½  pads of butter while 1% milk only compared to about ½ pad of butter and skim milk was fat free.  So only cutting back to 2% won’t make much of a difference but it can be used as a step in the right direction.  If you are a whole milk drinker like I have been then slowly cut yourself back to 2%, then 1%, then to fat free skim milk.  Overtime your taste buds will get used to the skim milk and then whole milk will taste too think and creamy.  He did say that children under 2 should not be restricted on their fat intake and that breast milk was the best thing for babies.  You can do the same thing with your dinner.  Don’t cut out everything but slowing substitute healthier choices.  If you want fried chicken then take the skin off and fry it in a little olive oil instead of deep frying it or eating the Colonel’s extra crispy.  If you want steak then trim the fat off before grilling it.   If you eat closer to how it grows then the better it is for you.

Carbohydrates

I was happy to hear that carbohydrates are good for you and that you should not take out carbohydrates to be healthy but to just choice the right ones since not all carbs are created equal.  Sugar is a carbohydrate but is not as good for you as whole grain.  Carbohydrates are important to give you energy and to help you feel full.  Foods that are high in carbohydrates are good choices when you are trying to lose weight.  Carbohydrates that grow closer to how they grow such as whole grain have more volume and make you feel full faster so you are actually eating less.  Diet fads that tell you to cut out all carbohydrates but eat as much meat and fat as you want aren’t making you skinny they are making you dehydrated.  You will lose weight but it will be your water weight and not true weight.  Carbohydrates are good for weight loss just eat the right type and everything in moderation.

Fiber is important part of our daily diet and keep things running smoothly.  We should have a daily goal of 30 grams of fiber although the average adult is only consuming about 10 grams a day.  David did warn not to try to increase your fiber intake rapidly because that could lead to intestinal issues such as bloating and diarrhea.  Just add a little at a time until you get up to the daily goal.   He said that you don’t have to go home and throw away everything that is “unhealthy” for you but to make better choices gradually over time and that it is all about quality, quantity and moderation.  You can eat more of something if it is good for you then you should if it is bad but everything in moderation.  It is ok to have something fatty and greasy once in a while as long as you don’t go overboard and it is more of the exception to your diet and not the rule.  Our bodies are like finely tuned machines, if we give it high quality fuel without a lot of excess filler and maintain it then it will run perfectly for a long time to come.  Quality, quantity and moderation.

Stop Smoking

There are absolutely no health benefits to smoking.  If you are concerned about gaining weight when you quit smoking keep in mind that an average person will gain about 10 or 12 lbs after they quit smoking but that you would have to gain several hundred pounds to equal the health risks of continuing to smoke.  There is no reason to continue smoking but a million reasons to quit; the only problem is trying to break the addiction.  If you have told yourself that you could quit at anytime because you have done it before then you have never really quit.   At Adler Cosmetic and Family Dentistry we understand how hard it can be and want to help.  Our patients aren’t just a number or just a mouth, they are a whole person and we want to treat you as a whole person like we would our own parent, sibling, or child.

Smoking is not only bad for your lungs but it also affects whole body and your mouth.  It’s common knowledge that smoking has been linked to both lung and heart disease.  But smoking can also increase your risk of periodontal disease.  Smokers are more likely to have a build up of tartar on their teeth, where disease-causing bacteria thrive.  Periodontal disease is essentially a chronic, open infection in your mouth.  Smoking worsens the condition by damaging the natural processes your body uses to fight the periodontal infection.   Smoking reduces saliva levels, restricts blood flow, and damages your immune system.  There are over 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, including formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, ammonia, and arsenic.  Also smokers are four times more likely to have advanced periodontal disease, and are twice as likely to lose their teeth.  David described our overall health as a forest.  Some people get so focused on a single tree that they can’t see the forest from the trees -meaning that if you are only worried about losing weight that you don’t pay attention to the rest of your body.  Well when you are a smoker then your whole forest is on fire so eating healthier or trying to lose weight are not going to save you in the long run.  There are various resources out there to help you to stop smoking from various products to support groups but none of these will help unless you are willing to take the first step and really want to quit.  Stopsmokingshotguide.com was one website that offered information on quitting smoking but look around your local area for support groups or products that will work for you.  It won’t kill you to quit but it will kill you to keep smoking.

In parts I and II, we learned about sugar, fats, carbohydrates, and smoking but what about exercise and goals?  Good nutrition is great but what is the overall picture?  Part III – Goals, Exercise and the Overall Picture will discuss all of this.  Nutritionist David Meinz claims that it is not what you eat between Christmas and New Year’s that matters, but rather, what you eat between New Year’s and Christmas!  He speaks to state and national associations and corporations and is a frequent guest on radio and television.  David’s formal education includes a Master’s Degree (MS) in Human Nutrition from the University of Missouri, and a status as a Registered Dietitian (RD) and Fellow in the American Dietetic Association (FADA).  He is also a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) in the National Speaker’s Association.  Our team was lucky enough to attend a continuing education seminar hosted by the Mile High Dental Study Club were David Meinz was the speaker.  Part III concludes the information that I learned during that seminar.

Understanding Your Sweet Tooth So You Can Keep Your Teeth (Part 1 of 3)

Continuing education is an important part of any dental practice – or at least it should be.  For our team appreciation day – our team went to a seminar hosted by the Mile High Dental Study Club of which our own periodontist Dr. Brown is the director.  The speaker David Meinz, MS, RD, FADA, CSP is a frequent guest on radio and television.  He speaks internationally to audiences about how to live life to the fullest with maximum energy and health.  He has a Master’s Degree (MS) in human nutrition from the University of Missouri; he’s a Registered Dietitian (RD), and a Fellow in the American Dietetic Association (FADA).  He’s also received the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation from the National Speakers Association.  The seminar was titled “What Good is a Dead Patient with Perfect Teeth?”  David covered the fundamentals and the latest about the food that we and our patients eat.  This title is not to say that we don’t want our patients to have perfect teeth but that we understand that there is a body and a person attached to that mouth and we want our patients to be as healthy and live as long as they can.

The seminar was very informative.  David was very knowledgeable and was a fun speaker.  It was no surprise for me to learn that I don’t eat as healthy as I should (although in some areas I am doing better then I thought) but David’s jokes made it an easier pill to swallow.  I found the information very helpful and so wanted to share this information with my patients.  Since a four hour seminar contains more information then one blog can contain I have broken it down into a three part series: Part I – Sugar; Part II – Carbohydrates and Fat, and Smoking; Part III – Goals, Exercise and the Overall Picture.

Part I –  

Understanding Your Sweet Tooth So You Can Keep Your Teeth

Sugar

I was surprised to learn that he promoted bringing back the sugar bowl.  He said that 1 teaspoon of sugar was equal to 4 grams.  If you look on the back of your sugary cereals the serving size is usually ¾ a cup of cereal and for me my actual serving size is about double that.  On one cereal I looked at it said that there were 22g of sugar per serving size, so that means if I eat double the serving size stated that I am eating 11 teaspoons of sugar!  I am a sugar fan but that is even more then I would put in.  David said that if you buy the unsweetened version of your kids (or your) favorite cereal and then let them add as much sugar from the sugar bowl as they want that it will still be less sugar then what they would have consumed by eating the sweetened version.  Besides most of the sugar from the sugar bowl ends up in the bottom of the bowl.

Don’t drink you calories!  David said that your body doesn’t get the same feed back from what you drink as it does from what you eat.  If you eat something then your body registers the calories and tells you when you are full but it does not do that when you drink so you end up taking in more calories then you should.  He called soda liquid candy because it gives you no nutritional value but you take in calories, sugar, and sodium.  Another thing that surprised me was that juice is not as good for you as I thought.  David was saying that your body treats liquids different from solid food so your body isn’t absorbing as many nutrients as you would if you ate the same fruit you are drinking so you are just getting the sugar and calories.  If you wouldn’t eat 6 oranges in one sitting then why drink it.  Also if you look at the back of most juice boxes it is rarely 100% juice with no preservatives or other additives.  At least if you eat it then you get the fiber too.

David said that he didn’t recommend sugar because it is something that we can live without but since most of us don’t want to then at least try to limit your intake.  So what about sugar substitutes, how do they compare?  There are four main types of sugar replacements that he covered: Saccharin, Aspartame (Nutrasweet/Equal), Sucalose (Splenda), and Stevia (Truvia/Purevia).  Saccharin is 0 calories and is 200-700x sweeter then sugar – not currently as popular as it once was.  Aspartame, more commonly known as the ingredient in Nutrasweet and Equal, is 0 calories and about 200x sweeter then sugar.  Sucralose know by the brand name of Splenda is also 0 calories and 600x sweeter then sugar.  The natural choice and the one that David recommended was Stevia which is a natural extract from the Stevia plant and the current brand names are TruVia and Purevia.  It is 300x sweeter then sugar and is a natural sweetener.  Stevia has been around for a while but used to only be available at specialty natural food stores.  It is now more commercially available and the companies have removed the slight licorice aftertaste that it has naturally.  None of the sugar replacements will raise your blood sugar or promote dental cavities because your body doesn’t recognize it as sugar so usually flushes it out instead of turning it into calories.

Polyols otherwise known as sugar alcohols are neither a true sugar nor an alcohol but is a group of carbohydrates that end with “ol” such as Xylitol.  They have low digestibility and can have GI effects if consumed in large amounts.  On average they are about 2 calories per gram versus 4 cal/g of other carbohydrates, or 4 cal/g for protein, or 9 cal/g for fats.  They are less sweet then sucrose and are often used to replace sugars and provide bulk.  They are commonly used in products that are labeled “surgar free” but remember that this doesn’t mean that the product is necessarily calorie free or free of carbohydrates.  Polyols do not promote tooth decay because they are not readily converted to acids by bacteria in your mouth.  For this reason, many “sugar free” gums such as Orbit, Extra, and Eclipse use Xylitol to sweeten their produce and promote cavity prevention.  Gums made only with Xylitol are best for preventing decay if chewed after meals but it looses its flavor very quickly.  Most gums advertising that they are made with Xylitol will also have other sugars and preservatives to have the flavor last so are not as good for preventing decay.

Honey and agave nectar may seem like a better more natural choice instead of refined sugar but as far as your body is concerned it treats it the same.  Agave Nectar is 20 calories per teaspoon, in comparison to sugar which is only 16 calories per teaspoon.  In addition, it is higher in fructose then high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and not high in nutrients.  Honey has the same components of sugar – glucose and fructose.  It is 22 calories per teaspoon and only has “trace” nutrients.  Although the thought has never bothered me, David did point out that honey is essentially bee spit because honey is made from nectar that has been broken down into simple sugars using an enzyme in the bee’s saliva.

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) has gotten a lot of publicity in the media of resent because it has been debated as to how bad it is for you.  As the name describes, HFCS is made from corn and is found in most processed food because it is cheaper then sugar and corn is subsidized by the government.  HFCS is 45% glucose and 55% fructose so very similar to the make up of sugar.  It is debatable if there are any health problems with HFCS but HFCS isn’t necessary “bad” itself it is mostly the highly processed food that it put in that are not good for you.  Eat closer to how something grows and it is better for you.

Stop smoking, eating healthy and getting in shape has got to be the top three the most popular New Year’s resolutions.  At the seminar hosted by the Mile High Dental Study Club, the speaker David Meinz, MS, RD, FADA, CSP, discussed these issues and how to make these resolutions a reality.  He is a frequent guest on radio and television and speaks internationally to audiences about how to live life to the fullest with maximum energy and health.  He has a Master’s Degree (MS) in human nutrition from the University of Missouri; he’s a Registered Dietitian (RD), and a Fellow in the American Dietetic Association (FADA).  He’s also received the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation from the National Speakers Association.  The seminar was titled “What Good is a Dead Patient with Perfect Teeth?”  David covered the fundamentals and the latest about the food that we and our patients eat.  This title is not to say that we don’t want our patients to have perfect teeth but that we understand that there is a body and a person attached to that mouth and we want our patients to be as healthy and live as long as they can.

The seminar was very informative.  Part II continues the discussion about carbohydrates, fat, and smoking.  I found the information very helpful and so wanted to share this information with my patients.

Be Grateful for Your Teeth This Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for all the things we have, including our teeth. Thanksgiving dinner just isn’t the same if you have to gum it. Our teeth are one of the things that we don’t tend to think about until we lose a tooth or get a toothache, which always seems to happen while traveling.

Some people think that teeth are a lot of maintenance and cost for little return but without them we would be hard pressed to get the nutrition we need and the variety of foods that we crave. Be thankful for your teeth and make sure to give them the attention they deserve year round and not just when they hurt. Make sure to see your dentist and dental hygienist on a regular basis and take care of problems while they are small so you can continue to enjoy a great Thanksgiving dinner for many years to come.

Have a great holiday from Adler Cosmetic & Family Dentistry!

Happy Halloween from Adler Cosmetic and Family Dentistry

In honor of the approaching holiday we provide this link to some fun facts and information surrounding Halloween. Check it out for the history of Jack O’ Lanterns and some other fun ‘pumpkin facts’.

http://www.albee.org/halloween/jackolantern.htm