Getting Through with your Health Intact

It’s that time of the year again - the holiday season.  Perhaps nothing is more challenging than getting through from Rosh Hashanah (The Jewish New Year)to Simchas Torah (The concluding festival from the festival of booths) with your health and weight intact.  As daunting and challenging as this may seem, a few little tricks and bit of self-discipline can get you through virtually unscathed.

There are essentially three areas where we all tend to get into trouble. One - the amounts of food we consume sitting at our tables for our festive meals, two - the types of food we eat, and three - the general lack of activity and exercise during the Holidays.

Let’s first look at the portion control issue.  There is a mitzvah to eat certain foods during the Holidays.  There is no mitzvah however, to consume mass quantities of anything.  In order to keep a handle on the over-eating problem, try this.  Take a reasonable portion on your plate, and if you are truly still hungry after you eat what’s on your plate, take seconds from a cooked or raw vegetable or whole grain dish.  Remember that drinking water may also make you feel full.  So, drink up before you start your meal. 

As far as the second item - the kinds of food we eat… Everyone can make some subtle adjustments in this area as well.  Even though meat and chicken dishes are more popular at this time of year, you can trim the fat from your meat and order lean cuts to begin with.  Skin the chicken and turkey, preferably before cooking, and keep in mind that the white meat is much less fatty than the dark. Also, keep the emphasis on vegetable and grain dishes.  For dessert, go for fresh fruit salads, melons, and sorbets instead of cake and cookies that are laden with sugar and fat.  Keep in mind that most non-dairy ice creams use chemicals and high-fat based whips.

Item number three is lack of activity.  No, don’t go out and do an exercise session during on yom tov!  But, don’t sit around either.  Nice long, brisk walks, particularly after your meals, are a great idea.  There is nothing worse than throwing yourself into metabolic rigor mortis by falling asleep immediately after a meal.  When you are done with the walk, stretch a little and then you can take your nap. 

The Holidays are a time to be especially joyful and happy, and to celebrate together with our families.  We need not create more stress in our lives than we already have.  So, instead of saying “After the holidays”, resolve to get started with good and healthful habits right now.  Watching your serving sizes, eating healthful choices and staying as active as possible over the Holidays are all ways to “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.” 

Although this space is normally used for my weekly columns on health, fitness, and weight loss, I will allow myself the liberty once a year to use this space for a personal message.

Hashem granted us the gift of a healthy body and expects us to do our best to take care of it. This requires healthful eating, exercise, the proper amount of sleep and an active lifestyle. We all are capable of helping ourselves. When we don’t take care of ourselves and watch over our health, the end result is illness and incapacitation resulting in our inability to perform the will of the Ribono Shel Olam. When we are sick, we can’t do chesed (acts of kindness), learn, daven or take care of our own families. Our nefesh, our soul, functions best when our guf, our body, is at its best!

Many years ago, I was not a fitness trainer; I was anything but fit and healthy. I led a sedentary life style, ate whatever I wanted to in whatever amounts I wanted to and was overweight with slightly high blood pressure that became high blood pressure. As a former musician playing the wedding in circuit in the Greater New York area, eating at the smorgasbord at weddings was an activity I greatly looked forward to every evening. A few years after I relocated to Israel, I was fortunate to meet someone who changed my life around. I went from being sedentary with a poor diet to being active and healthy. I began eating right, walking, doing weights and stretching and after a short while, became a runner/jogger. My blood pressure went down, my old clothes fit again and I felt like a new person.  THIS IS SOMETHING VERY DOABLE!

As a personal trainer here in Jerusalem for the past 17 years, I have been privileged to witness many people who have turned their health around. Even people in desperate straits and with all types of health issues, have been very successful and no longer require medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and depression. Their weight is normal, and not only has their physical health improved, but they feel better about themselves. 

Rosh HaShana is a time for thanking G-d for giving us life and health over the past year. It is also the time for praying that He will give us good health and long life for the upcoming year. At the same time, we must do our hishtadlus, our effort, in the area of health. Our non-Jewish brothers approach their secular new year with all kinds of resolutions that are never kept. We do T’shuva. We work hard to actualize real change. And if there is ever a time we CAN change, it is now.

About 6 years ago, I began writing this newsletter.  I never dreamed I would get the responses I have gotten from all over the world and the amount of inquiries and questions about health topics have been abundant. Thank G-d these columns have been able to help and motivate many people to achieve good health with G-d's help will continue to do so for a long time. 

It is also five years since I teamed up with my associate, Linda Holtz M. Sc and opened the Lose It! Weight Loss and Stress Reduction Program. Its unique approach of integrating the three disciplines of nutrition, exercise/activity and just as importantly, behavior is a one of a kind. We have seen excellent results across the board in the area of weight loss, stress management and treatment of anxiety and depression. With G-d's help, Lose It! will continue to be of key to success for many, many more people both here in Israel and in abroad, helping them to attain good overall health, lose weight permanently and attain a superior quality of life.

Shana Tova—a happy and healthy New Year to all of you. 

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 17 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il  Check out the Lose It! web site - www.loseit.co.il

USA Line 516-568-5027

A Calorie is a Calorie is a Calorie????

A Calorie is a Calorie is a Calorie—or is it?

My son-in-law recently called me with a question. How is it possible that a slice of whole wheat bread and white bread were equal in caloric content?  Here he had changed his eating habits to include better quality foods only to see that the calories were all the same anyway.  Calories! We talk about them all the time and we know that pizza and ice cream and large hamburgers have lots of them.  A calorie in scientific terms is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius. In practical terms, we know that if we consume more calories than we use, we gain weight and if we use more calories than we eat, we lose weight.  Carbohydrates and proteins contain 4 calories per gram, fats 9 calories per gram and alcohol is 7 calories per gram. We also have a pretty good idea which foods are more calories (calorie dense) and which foods have less calories. Obviously eating a carrot (52 calories) or a cucumber (16 calories peeled) isn’t the same as eating 2 slices of double-cheese stuffed pizza (675 calories).  Most of us also know that healthful foods are good for us and help us stay healthy and fight off many diseases, whereas eating junk all the time can prove harmful to our health both nutritionally and in terms of weight gain.  But in theory, a calorie should just be a calorie, so if I choose to eat 3 slices of that pizza a day with some vegetables, I could hypothetically lose weight. Yet,  I could over eat healthy food like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish and eat too much and gain weight.  But there is more here than meets the eye.  Sometimes, the type of food we eat does things to the body that interfere with our ability to metabolize normally and it can cause us more of a weight gain than the caloric content of those foods would indicate.  That means that weight loss is a lot more than just about calories. 

When we make healthful choices (not in unlimited portions!), we digest differently than eating unrefined whole foods.  The more a food is refined, or processed, the quicker it will digest.  Refined foods such as white bread, pasta and rice and white sugar are easily broken down by the body because the complex carbohydrates have been taken out of them. This means that your body doesn't have to work very hard in order to digest the nutrition found in these foods, leaving your metabolism at a crawl. Refined carbs don't offer a lot of nutritional value anyway, so you're better off consuming whole wheat breads, pasta and brown rice. These choices require your metabolism to work in order to digest the nutrients, so it helps to speed it up.  When we eat foods high in sugar, it creates a spike in blood glucose levels and is very quickly absorbed into your system. Both of these scenarios actually assist in the process to slow your metabolism, whether you realize it or not. Avoiding foods with excess sugar in them is the best idea, but consuming them once in awhile won't hamper your weight loss journey in the long run. You might want to consider replacing some of your candy, chocolate and ice cream with fresh fruit, which will help to satisfy your sweet tooth without causing a spike in your glucose levels. Calories may be about equal between a slice of whole grain bread and white bread, but because the whole grain bread is slower to digest, it keeps your metabolism higher and uses more energy (calories) than the slice of white bread. 

In addition, fatty foods can slow your metabolism.  Fat is not as easily digested as some of the other foods that will slow your metabolism. High fat foods create a scenario where your body simply doesn't know what to do with it all. In this instance, your metabolism slows down and takes a break while your body starts saving the fat for future use. This results not only in a slower metabolism, but in an increase in body fat as well. Replace fried foods and fast foods, with things like baked chips and low fat desserts to help keep your sweet tooth at bay without slowing down your metabolism.

Dr. Peter Attia has dedicated his medical career to investigating the relationship between nutrition, obesity and diabetes. A surgeon who developed metabolic syndrome himself despite the fact that he ate well and exercised often, Attia realized that our understanding of these important health issues may not actually be correct. He devoted himself to using vigorous scientific inquiry to test both our assumptions and new hypotheses through the Nutrition Science Initiative.  Even though Attia followed the old USDA food pyramid and exercised close to 3 hours a day, he still got metabolic syndrome and had severe insulin resistance.  He ended up changing his dietary habits by elimination processed and refined foods and actually was able to exercise less, but then achieved good health—and by making that change, he dropped about 19 kilograms (40 pounds).  He did not make a drastic caloric change, but the type of foods he consumed, changed dramatically. 

Refined and processed foods can bring on diabetes, metabolic syndrome, unwanted weight gain and can also deprive you of needed nutrition to prevent cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and a host of other diseases.  But we must also remember that over eating healthy choices can also cause us problems.  So go for the healthy choices, keep refined foods to a bare minimum, and understand what a portion of food is and how much you should be eating daily.  A good registered dietician can help you to make that calculation.  Vegetables are always a good bet (don’t overcook them), fruits are a must, but keep it to 3 a day (4 if you exercise intensely), and eat mostly whole grains.  Choose lean proteins like fish, chicken breast and low fat dairy products (if you don’t have intolerance to dairy) and beans, tofu and eggs are also good choices.  Eat small meals and snacks 5-6 times during the course of the day instead of only a few very large meals (yes, a calorie isn’t a calorie in this respect either).  And one other point—you may not like the “taste” of whole grain products when you make the switch, but what you will come to realize after a few weeks is that they indeed have a real taste as opposed to the refined products, which usually have the taste of salt and food additives.  Those first few weeks can be trying as far as adjusting to these healthful foods, but almost everyone that makes the switch, never wants to go back to their old eating habits.   

It’s true that white bread and white rice and white pasta aren’t different in terms of calorie count from their whole counterparts, but the results are startlingly different.  Eating unrefined, healthy foods will “add hours to your day, days to your year, and years to your life.”  

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 17 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il   Check out the Lose It! web site - www.loseit.co.il    US Line: 516-568-5027

Carbophobia Part 2

Carbophobia

Part II

Good Carbs, Bad Carbs

Carbohydrates are found in a wide array of foods - bread, beans, milk, popcorn, potatoes, cookies, spaghetti, soft drinks, corn, and cherry pie. The most common and abundant forms are sugars, fibers, and starches.  The basic building block of every carbohydrate is a sugar molecule, a simple union of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Some contain hundreds of sugars. Some chains are straight; others branch wildly.  The digestive system handles all carbohydrates in much the same way - it breaks them down (or tries to break them down) into single sugar molecules, since only these are small enough to cross into the bloodstream. It also converts most digestible carbohydrates into glucose (also known as blood sugar), because cells are designed to use this as a universal energy source.

Carbohydrates are not the root of all evil. They are needed as a chief source of energy and nutrition. But what type of carbs are you eating and how much? Fruits, vegetables, and whole grains are necessary and crucial to consume.  Refined grains offer very little in the way of nutrition and can cause insulin resistance over time. Whole grains digest slowly and therefore insulin is secreted in a slow and even way. When we eat too many white-flour or refined-sugar products, we cause insulin spikes. Too many years of poor diet and little activity and exercise will lead to type 2 diabetes, something becoming all too common in today’s world. This disease was once known as mature onset diabetes since it occurred later in life. Today this is no longer the case, and it is even being diagnosed in kids in their early teens and younger.  Don't be misled by fad diets that make blanket pronouncements on the dangers of carbohydrates. They provide the body with the fuel that it needs for physical activity and for proper organ function, and they are an important part of a healthy diet. But some kinds of carbohydrates are far better than others.  Here are a few tips from the Harvard School of Public Medicine on how to include carbs in your day:

1. Start the day with whole grains. Try a hot cereal, like whole oats, or a cold cereal that lists a whole grain first on the ingredient list and is low in sugar. But finding sugar in cereals takes a bit of detective work. Learn how to be a savvy reader of breakfast cereal labels.

2. Use whole grain breads for lunch or snacks. Confused about how to find a whole-grain bread? Look for bread that lists as the first ingredient whole wheat, whole rye, or some other whole grain - and even better, one that is made with only whole grains, such as 100% whole wheat bread.

3. Bag the potatoes. Instead, try brown rice, bulgur, wheat berries (the entire kernel is intact), whole wheat pasta, or another whole grain with your dinner. 

4. Choose whole fruit instead of juice. An orange has two times as much fiber and half as much sugar as a 12-ounce glass of orange juice.

5. Bring on the beans. Beans are an excellent source of slowly digested carbohydrates as well as a great source of protein.

For most people, weight gain happens over a long period of time.  It’s not difficult to consume 50 calories a day more than you need or than you use. That will give you a 5-pound gain per year. Keep that up for a number of years, and you will be obese. For example, in 20 years, that will give you a 100-pound weight gain.  If we have determined that the low-carb, high-protein routine is not only ineffectual, but also possibly unsafe, how do we go about this daunting task of losing weight?

Naturally, each person has his or her own individual tendencies regarding weight loss.  But the general rule to follow is this: fewer calories in and more calories expended. Let’s take the case of a client of mine (name has been changed).  Shira led a very sedentary lifestyle. At five feet two inches, she weighed almost 250 pounds. Driving almost everywhere, opting for the elevator instead of stairs, and choosing to stay inside after her long day at work instead of walking, Shira was only burning as many calories per day as her body used for basic functions (resting metabolism).  Besides all that, she was eating large amounts of food, and the foods she chose to eat were calorie dense. Realizing she was slowly destroying herself, she came to us and began a weight-loss, physical-fitness program.

Shira began with a twenty-minute walks each day.  At the same time, she cut her caloric intake and made healthful choices for her meals and snacks.  Her food program was balanced and included mostly fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthful fats and lean protein choices.  Keeping up this routine and refining and intensifying it as she became more fit and able to do more, she lost 115 pounds over eighteen months. Today (almost 8 years later) Shira’s body mass index, the index most widely used by doctors to measure overweight and obesity, is just within the healthy range.  At the same time, all of her nutritional requirements are met on a daily basis.  And she eats carbs while doing it!

To recap: Fad diets just don’t work. Any diet or food program that is based on the elimination of entire food groups and obsessively eating only certain foods is harmful to you, and for most people in the world, it is unsustainable.  Eating right is hard work. So if you don’t want to be one of those people who lose significant weight and gain it all back and more, it is worth the effort, as the rewards of good health and longevity are certainly well worth it. 

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 17 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il   Check out the Lose It! web site - www.loseit.co.il    US Line: 516-568-5027

Carbophobia

 Part I

A World of Extremes

We live in a world of extremes.  For those who want to follow the Rambam’s sensible way of living, the middle path in terms of diet and exercise seems elusive.  In the last few years, we have been treated to low carbs, high protein, low fat, low sugar, no sugar, high carbs etc.  It’s as if the quick fix is the only way to achieve what we want.  But the statistics are telling us that most people who are trying all these radical approaches to diet are not achieving much of anything.

Let’s look at the facts.  Ninety-seven percent of people who are following an organized diet plan based on a book or program of some kind without making any other lifestyle changes will fail. Yes, many will lose pounds while on their program, but a few years down the road they will either weigh in at close to their starting weight, or even more.  The Western world is obsessed with weight loss. In the United States alone, individuals and companies are spending more than $60 million per year on weight loss products and programs - yes, you have that correct, 60 million dollars on programs the mostly don’t work in the long term. Yet the amount of overweight or obese people continues to rise.  Remember the low-fat diets we were bombarded with a few years ago?  Everything on the supermarket shelf was marked in big, bold print “Low Fat” or “No Fat.” The result was that Americans continued to get fatter. Dr. Atkins made a revolution all right.  Everyone stopped eating things that were good for them, and then lost weight until they couldn’t stand it anymore. And then they ended up eating every carbohydrate in sight, in addition to steaks, eggs, cheese and burgers.

Reverse Results

After the 1972 Olympics, physical fitness became popular.  By 1978, according to U.S. News and World Report, America was in the midst of “fitness mania.” But it was also about this time that obesity rates began the rise that continue to this day. Yes, there is a genetic predisposition for many, which makes them more prone to being overweight, and some people do have a naturally faster metabolism, but basically, weight gain works like this: if we consume more fuel than we burn, we get fat.

Does this happen from the occasional binge, the extra slice of pizza or the extra scoop of ice cream?  Not really.  Weight gain is really a slow and gradual process.  Let’s say you eat 2,300 calories a day and use only 2,000 or so.  Every day you are left with 300 extra calories that turn into extra pounds every few weeks. Driving instead of walking twenty minutes every day means a gain of five pounds per year.  Drinking a single can of Coke every other day will add another four pounds. As you see, it's just a few extra grams a day and a few pounds a year, but that’s enough to create the epidemic which includes a wide range of disease and illness and kills 350,000 per year just in the United States.

Low-Fat, No-Fat

It is no accident that about the time that this epidemic started, the low-fat and no-fat phenomena began.  People think that just because their food is lower in fat, they can eat as much as they want.  Not true.  You can get fat on brown rice and whole wheat bread if you eat enough of it, let alone reduced fat cookies, frozen yogurt and dietetic cakes.  These foods tend to have more sugar and can even be high in calories than their non-dietetic fatty counterparts. (The American Heart Association has adopted this position.) Now let’s talk about these not-so evil carbs.

In our eternal search for the perfect diet, carbohydrates became the culprit. It is estimated that up to 20 percent of Americans are participating in a low-carbohydrate diet for weight loss or maintenance.  In these diets, carbs are shunned while protein consumption is encouraged.  The two of the more popular low-carb diets are the Atkins Diet and the South Beach Diet, but there are many variations.

Does it work?  The National Weight Control Registry is a long-term study of individuals 18 years and older who have successfully maintained a 30-pound weight loss for a minimum of one year. Currently it has about 4,500 members. An analysis of the diets of close to 3,000 people listed in this registry found that fewer than 1% who had maintained at least the 30 pounds of weight loss for a year or more followed a low carbohydrate diet (with less than 24% of the daily calories from carbohydrates). Because so few dieters following Atkins were found in the registry, which includes only long-term dieters, researchers concluded that very low-carb diets do not offer any weight loss advantage over the long term.  In addition, not eating enough unrefined carbohydrates carries certain health risks because they contain nutritional value and energy that we need.   

There is no diet worth going on if it compromises your health. Whether it is Atkins, Sugar Busters, Protein Power, South Beach, or any other variation on the high protein theme, there is scientific evidence than ever that a diet high in fat and animal products is strongly linked with heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and other diseases.  “Even if you manage to lose weight and keep it off on an Atkins diet, you may be mortgaging your health in the process,” says Dr. Dean Ornish, author of Eat More, Weigh Less.  Some late research has now shown that a high-protein diet also prevents maximum absorption of calcium into the system, leading to osteoporosis. Additionally, people with even slight abnormal kidney function can be harmed by high-protein diets. Liver disease and gout are now found to be more common in those doing the high-protein, low-carb fad diets. Low-carb diets tend to be very unbalanced and prevent the consumption of necessary vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.  If all carbs are bad, then the consumption of basic foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains becomes minimal.  This is what deprives the dieter of essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients.

Now that we’ve established what isn’t good for you in the long run, stay tuned for Part II, where you’ll learn about the many benefits of consuming the right carbs.

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 17 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il   Check out the Lose It! web site - www.loseit.co.il    US Line: 516-568-5027

All Those Numbers

You weigh 176 pounds.  Your BMI is 26.6.  Your waist to hip measurement is 0.8.  Your body fat is at 24%. What is one to make of all this?  First, let us deal with the scale which will give you your weight in pounds or kilo. And that is all it tells us.  It doesn’t tell you how much of that weight is because you are big or small framed (boned) and it certainly can’t differentiate between how much is muscle (healthy) and how much is fat weight (unhealthy).  The number on the scale gives us a good idea about our health and weight, but it isn’t the whole story—at all.  Numerous times I have witnessed my clients walking in and getting ready for a weekly weigh in.  They feel so much better in how their clothes fit (the belt went in a notch this week) but the scale is still in the same place.  That is the displacement of lost fat by new found muscle from the person’s working out properly. So even though the person lost no weight on the scale that week, they lost centimeters around their waist and that is far more important to your health. 

BMI--I am a BMI Basher.  The BMI, short for Body Mass Index, is an index used to measure our health risk by calculating height and weight.   It was devised between 1830 and is defined as the individual's body mass divided by the square of his or her height. The formula universally used in medicine produces a unit of measure of one’s weight in kilograms divided by their height in meters, squared.  In 1927, the BMI became a main measure of evaluation of one’s body mass.  For the last 25 years, it has been used by most health providers and doctors to assess their patient’s health risks vis-à-vis their weight.  When you read the all too frightening statistics about how much of the population is overweight and obese, these are based on BMI readings.  Here is how we interpret BMI results:

BMI	Weight Status
Below 18.5	Underweight
18.5 – 24.9	Normal
25.0 – 29.9	Overweight
30.0 and Above	Obese

The BMI is very easy to use, and that is one of the reasons that doctors like to use it.  It is simply using height and weight measurements which are relatively easy to obtain.  But the accuracy of the BMI  in terms of measuring overall health risk is questionable.

A 2010 study that followed 11,000 subjects for up to eight years concluded that BMI is not a good measure for the risk of heart attack, stroke or death. A better measure was found to be the waist-to-height ratio.

BMI is particularly inaccurate for people who are fit or athletic, as the higher muscle mass tends to put them in the "overweight" category by BMI, even though their body fat percentages frequently fall in the 10-15% category, which is below that of a more sedentary person of average build who has a "healthy" BMI number. Body composition for athletes is often better calculated using measures of body fat, as determined by such techniques as skin fold measurements or underwater weighing and the limitations of manual measurement have also led to new, alternative methods to measure obesity, such as the body volume index.

BMI also does not account for body frame size; a person may have a small frame and be carrying too much excess fat, but their BMI reflects that they are "healthy". Conversely, a large framed individual may be quite healthy with a fairly low body fat percentage, but be classified as "overweight" by BMI.  A further limitation of BMI relates to loss of height through aging. In this situation, BMI will increase without any corresponding increase in weight.

But to put it in simple terms, the BMI doesn’t measure important aspects of healthy living.  There is no calculation that includes how much exercise a person does or whether or not you include healthful foods in your diet.  A person with a 22-23 BMI may look good in the eye of the examining doctor, however, if this person happens to have a fast metabolism, eats unhealthy food and doesn’t exercise, he may be a lot less healthy and much more at risk for sickness and mortality than a person with a 27-28 BMI who exercises daily and tries to consume healthy foods. 

There is no question that the BMI can be an important calculation to help us have an idea of how our health is affected by our weight, but unlike the impression given by our public health officials, it is certainly not the beginning and end all of measurements related to our weight and health.  As I advise my clients all the time, if you need to lose weight, every pound and kilo that you lose is a pound or kilo improvement in your health and if your weight loss is coupled with doing even minimal exercise, then in spite of a BMI that may be higher than 25, you are doing wonders for your health.  The best measure of how you are doing is probably more how your clothes are fitting than anything else, because that is the best indication of fat-weight loss.  The BMI is probably heading the way of the original food pyramid which did more harm than good to the public health.  New and more accurate measures, that are not difficult to use, are on the way.

Your weight and BMI are important, but they are not the bottom line in assessing your health risk. If you keep doing what you need to in terms of proper eating and exercise, you will be doing wonders for your health.  Keeping your weight in check and exercising daily will “add hours to your day, days to your year, and years to your life.” 

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 16 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il  Check out the Lose It! web site - www.loseit.co.il    US Line: 516-568-5027

Your Brain Too!

The benefits of exercise and good nutrition are certainly well known.  Not only can a balanced and consistent exercise program and healthful eating lead to a better quality of life and even lengthen your life, some recent research indicates that it is also great for your brain, especially in avoiding and curing depression.

Depressive disorders affect approximately 18.8 million American adults or about 9.5% of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year. Everyone will at some time in his or her life be affected by depression -- their own or someone else's, according to Australian Government statistics. (Depression statistics in Australia are comparable to those of the US and UK.).  Anti depression medication, such as Prozac and Zoloft, are the most prescribed class of drugs in the United States today.  In 2005, 115 million prescriptions were handed out.  We don’t know yet how and why these medications work and they can be quite expensive, especially when coupled together with psychotherapy.  But there seems to be a simple and inexpensive alternative.  Have you ever noticed how much better you feel about life after a brisk half-hour walk?  Recent studies have shown that exercise is just as effective at fighting depression, as anti-depression drugs are.

Our brains are composed of nerve cells known as neurons.  The gaps between these neurons are bridged by chemical neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, also known as the “mood” chemicals.  These are the chemicals in the brain that effect alertness, vitality, tranquility and euphoria and more importantly, they stave off depression. 

A recent study lead by Dr. Monika Fleshner at the University of Colorado at Boulder has shown that exercise works to improve depression and that it increased serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain. And for those who must take medications, exercise in conjunction with anti-depressant drugs seems to cause the drugs to work more effectively. 

Exercise also helps the brain in other ways such as cognitive functions.  Children who engage in aerobic exercise score higher on tests, says Dr. Charles H. Hillman at the University of Illinois at Urbana.  In addition, he also discovered that aerobic exercise not only increases the levels of serotonin and dopamine, but also actually increases the size of your brain, particularly the hippocampus, which is the part of your brain that controls emotion.  Also, it seems that exercise allows the brain to retrieve latent memories.

Anyone who has exercised knows how much better you feel after a session.  The “runner’s high” is a well know phenomenon that distance runners can often experience. It is difficult to know exactly how much exercise we need to do in order to achieve these positive feelings and effects, but Dr. Fleshner feels that 70% of the program should be cardio (aerobic), 20% strength training, and 10% flexibility training (stretching). 

Looking at the nutrition side of this equation, we know that just like poor eating can harm normal blood circulation to your heart, the same is true of the brain. The better blood flow is up to your brain, the more oxygen and nutrients are available in order to sustain itself.  Therefore, an eating program that is vegetable and fruit dense and low in trans fats and saturated fats, and yet includes monounsaturated healthy fats will help keep your arteries from clogging.  But there is even more.  Lately, vast amounts of research has been done on the effects of omega 3 oils on brain function. 

A 2005 study showed that adequate nutrition is needed for many aspects of brain functioning. Poor diet quality, ever-present in the Western World, may be a modifiable risk factor for depression. Insufficient omega-3 fatty acid status particularly increases the risk of depression. Historically, the ratio between omega 3 and omega 6 was 1:1.  In today’s western diet, the ratio is 1:10 or even as high as 1:20.  There is a much lower instance of depression amongst Asians where fish consumption is higher, giving the body more Omega 3 than amongst those of us in the West.  Today’s consumption of Omega 3s is about half of what it was before WWII and it is precisely from that period that the rates of depression have gone up considerably. A lack of Omega 3 might also explain why one in ten postpartum mothers experiences depression.  Since Omega 3 fatty acids play a major role in building the brain and maintaining its balance, these fats are the principle nourishment the fetus takes in through the placenta.  That is also why the mother’s reserves, which are already low in our western style diets, drop dramatically in the last weeks of pregnancy, often leading to post partum depression.   Omega 3 rich foods are Fatty fishes like salmon, sardines and tune, flaxseed, canola oil and walnuts.

We all know that the sedentary lifestyle of the last two generations has brought on a whole host of medical problems. It seems that this lifestyle is partly responsible for the increase of depression in the world as well.  So, get off the couch and away from the computer, put on those running shoes, get outdoors and go for a walk, do some strength training and start to feel great about life!  Keeping your brain in shape as well as the rest of your body is another way to “add hours to your day, days to your year, and years to your life.” 

ALAN FREISHTAT is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 16 years of professional experience. He is the co-Director of the Jerusalem-based Lose It! The Center for Health and Wellness along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. They have begun working with Dr. Michael Bunzel, M.D., a psychiatrist in Bnei Brak, Israel on incorporating exercise as a therapy for Stress, Anxiety and Depression.  Lose it! can be reached at 02-654-0728 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il. You can also visit the Lose It! website at www.loseit.co.il

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Predisposed? Work around your Genes

Genes-a word that can be used to define our genetic makeup or a convenient excuse?  They can give us a predisposition for heart disease, cancer, or a shorter or longer life. I often hear from my clients; “I would love to do your weight loss program, but it is a waste of time.  These are the Genes that G-d gave me there is nothing I can do about it.”   We have all used or heard the standard reasons for not exercising and eating right—“It takes too much time”, “I can’t afford they gym or healthy food”, “I’m too tired and busy”, lately, I have been hearing more of the “I inherited this” excuse than I used to.  Yes, there is definitely some predisposition for having more fat cells or less fat cells in your body, having high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, but so what!  The question is, can we do anything to counter the family in inheritance and if so, what?

First of all, most of what we call “genetic” isn’t really.  As we grow up, we develop various behaviors, both good and bad, based on what we see and imitate around us.   If we grow up and are raised in an environment where overeating and a lazy lifestyle are prevalent, we internalize that and imitate it, without genes playing a particular role. New studies suggest that exercise and a healthful diet can override the harmful effects of some "bad genes" and boost the beneficial effects of others in all areas of health.

In one example, scientists at the University of Kuopio, in Finland, found that people with particular variants of three different genes stand a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But when people with these variants exercise regularly, they lessen the danger. Although the studies didn’t look at why, scientists have shown that exercise helps improve insulin sensitivity and blood-sugar levels.

Exercise can also amplify the effects of "good genes." For example, people with one variant of a gene that controls cholesterol metabolism, typically have elevated levels of good HDL cholesterol. When those with this lucky gene variation exercise, as researchers at the Steno Diabetes Center in Gentofte, Denmark, reported recently, they get an even bigger boost in HDL levels.

Sedentary lifestyles, on the other hand, may make bad genetic interactions even worse. Growing evidence shows that certain variations of a gene called FTO are associated with being overweight or obese, for example. Research reported in the journal Diabetes earlier this year suggests that when people with these "fat" forms of the gene skimp on physical activity they are even more likely to accumulate fat. Fortunately, exercise can overpower the effects of this fat-accumulating gene variant, according to a study of 704 adults published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in September. Findings like these aren’t surprising.

A wealth of epidemiological studies already show that physical activity reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes. The good news: even if you inherit an unlucky roll of the genetic dice, there’s plenty you can do to improve the odds.

  

And your diet can also help you overcome genetic factors.  We know that eating a very healthy diet appears to make heart disease less likely, but now that even goes for people whose genes put them at a higher than normal risk of heart trouble. A diet high in fruits and vegetables appears to mitigate the genetic risk of a heart attack,” says a professor of medicine and epidemiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. This finding could affect many people at risk for heart disease because of a genetic variant that researchers have only recently linked with heart attack. It could also call into question the suggestion that you can’t help your genes.

The studies used different dietary information. For one study, the researchers drew up a prudent diet score based mostly on raw vegetable and fruit intake. The score also took into account”risk” foods, such as fried foods, meat, and salty snacks.

For the other study, the score was based on intake of fruit, vegetables, and berries. Those who ate at least two out of those three foods daily earned the prudent rating.

The risk of heart attack for those with the bad genes who ate the least prudent diet was increased about 30%. “The risk of heart attack of those with the bad genotype who were in the high prudent diet group was not increased. This suggests that diet can weaken the effect of the genetic variation, the researchers say.

The study findings suggest that lifestyle does matter, no matter what your genes have dealt you. This suggests you may be able to do something about bad genes if you follow a prudent diet that is rich in fruits and vegetables. The worse the diet, the higher the risk of heart attack. The better the diet, the lower the risk.

In spite of a less than favorable predisposition, eating properly and exercising have been shown to “add hours to your day, days to your year and years to your life.” 

Alan Freishtat is an A.C.E. CERTIFIED PERSONAL TRAINER and a LIFESTYLE FITNESS COACH with over 16 years of professional experience. He is the co-director of the Jerusalem-based weight loss and stress reduction center Lose It! along with Linda Holtz M.Sc. and is available for private consultations, assessments and personalized workout programs. Alan also lectures and gives seminars and workshops. He can be reached at 02-651-8502 or 050-555-7175, or by email at alan@loseit.co.il  www.loseit.co.il

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