If you’ve ever been on a weight loss diet, you know how difficult it is to stay the course, achieve your target weight, and then maintain it for months and years. The majority of dieters fail to maintain their low weight for over a year.

For many, a diet means a temporary sacrifice and inconvenience in order to reach a certain goal (Weddings, bikini season, etc..). But unlike other one time sacrifices – working as a teen all summer long to save up money to buy a car, or spending 4 years crunching textbooks to get an engineering degree – once you’ve achieved your goal, you’ve got to continue working hard to maintain it.

Jennifer LaRue Huget, Washington Post’s Eat Drink and Be Healthy blogger, has a great piece on a current trend:

…a subtle shift in the diet-guidance market: Instead of prescribing eating regimens, many weight-loss experts are suggesting that we reevaluate our relationship with food, focus on eating healthful whole foods and use psychology to aid our efforts to shed pounds. read more…

What you need to know:

The weight loss industry is a huge business and still growing – close to $70 billion in revenue expected this year alone (compare to $500 billion we spend on groceries). But obviously something is afoul, as the average American is still getting heavier year after year.

A lifestyle change seems like a better approach, because habits are, well, habitual. We get used to doing things a certain way, and then it’s not an effort to continue doing them. For example, getting into the habit of eating whole grain products instead of refined grains. Getting into the habit of drinking only water. Getting used to less salty food over the course of several months through gradual reduction. Ditto for sugar.

We’re not saying that this is easy. If you’ve been drinking pop for 30 years, making it a habit to drink just water is a daunting task. That’s why starting young is a key success factor. If your children equate thirst with water, not juice, that’s a life lesson that will help them manage their weight ten or twenty years down the road (not to mention dentist bills).

Another issue to consider is the role that the food industry is playing in creating good or bad lifestyle choices for us. With snacks getting shoved in front of our faces every which way we turn, it’s so easy to succumb to temptation. Think Doritos and Coke when filling up the minivan, a 400 calorie latte at the bookstore, or even a “healthy” 500 calorie snack at the gym after a workout.

What to do at the supermarket:

For those of us complaining about the high price of healthy foods (fresh fruits and vegetables) here is some interesting math: 72 million Americans are on some sort of diet. They will spend $70B this year on dieting. That works out to almost $1000 per person spent on dieting, on average. Imagine using those $1000 to improve the quality and nutrition of the products you purchase – an extra $20 a week to get more nutrients into your body. And if you kick the soft drink habit, switching to tap water – that’s another $125 of savings annually.

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This is a guest blog post by Carol Harvey, director of nutrition labeling at Palate Works. She recently visited the San Francisco Fancy Food Show.

For 35 years, the Fancy Food Show has been the trade show of all things tasty, gourmet and upscale. Many food products are launched there, including an increasing number dished up as “healthy” or “better for you,” due to evolving consumer demand.

In fact, the “top 5 food trends” for 2010 just announced by NASFT (the trade association that produces the show) include “good-for-you foods”. This “trend,” brewing for most of the 20 years that I have been attending the show, has proven a smart business move for a number of brands.

Whether any of the 100,000+ exhibited products really nailed the “taste + nutrition” prize was my focus again this year in San Francisco. And once again, how a company uses nutrition claims separated those that know their nutrition and labeling from those that don’t. Here are three examples. Read more…

Respect.

Not the first word that comes to mind when we think about food. Hunger, guilt, diet, and calories are more common thoughts that pass our collective American mind when we contemplate what goes through our mouth three or more times a day.

But respect for food, meals, and mealtimes is crucially missing from our modern and instant culture. A fast food culture. Fast preparation, fast consumption, always on the go.  Eating has become a quick, and often times guilty pleasure, met almost immediately post consumption with feelings of remorse – from the heartburn 30 minutes after a combo-burger meal, to the needle on the scale in the bathroom the next morning. Not to mention a warning from the doctor during periodic checkups.

Now think about the holiday season that is ending. The festivity, the family get together, the joint breaking of bread at the dining room table. Culinary delights. Laughter. Joy. Togetherness. Yes, you’ve worked hard in the kitchen. But the pleasure of eating real food, perhaps with a good glass of wine or two, and the flow of conversation with real friends is … well … priceless.

Too bad this happens just a handful of times every year. Once upon a time, every evening culminated in a family dinner shared by the entire crew. Not all dinners were fancy, far from it, but they were usually fresh cooked. Parents talked with their children, and with each other. Life lessons were learned, values forged.

We’re not trying to over-romanticize here, and certainly don’t think the world needs to go back to the days where the mothers/wives “slaved away” for hours in the kitchen.

But we’ve come to the other extreme today. For many people, the kitchen is the place you visit to take the frozen food out of the freezer, unwrap it, microwave it and then consume it while watching TV or at playing at the computer. The dining room? That’s a museum. Or an “inverse” museum. Closed all year, open on Christmas Day.

There’s got to be a better balance. And that’s what we’d like to propose for 2010 and the coming decade. Let’s give food a little more R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

If we pay a little more respect to food, we can reclaim the pleasures of dining, of family-time, and even cooking. It’s not such a drag to cook when the entire family is working together. And with all the amenities of the modern kitchen, combined with awesome ingredients one can get from any supermarket, millions of simple recipes are at everyone’s fingertips.

If we respect food, we’ll begin to identify lots of impostors, or as Michal Pollan calls them, food-like substances. The absence of these non-foods from our lives – no longer brought into our pantry and refrigerator, no more wolved down at quick service establishments, no longer associated with us – will surely have a positive impact on our health.

Have a happy, tasty, and healthy new year.

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If you fly regularly for work or pleasure, you know that airline food is not the epitome of gourmet cooking. (We’re not talking about business and first class, unfortunately…). Nor is that foil wrapped, overcooked scrambled egg combo a nutritional powerhouse. However, the major airlines are making slow and marked improvements in healthifying their food. According to Charles Stuart Platkin, the Diet Detective,

10 years ago, the average coach dinner had 1,054 calories, about as much as a McDonald’s Big Mac and large fries. Today those elusive, rarely free airline meals are of much better quality, many with calorie totals half or less of that previous zenith. more…

According to Platkin, here’s how the airlines currently rank in terms of nutritious options: (5 stars is top score)

Continental: 4.5 stars
American Airlines: 3.75 stars
United: 3.5 stars
JetBlue: 3.5 stars
Delta/Northwest: 3.5 stars
US Airways: 2.5 stars
Southwest: 2 stars

What to do:

Why fall into the common trap of not having eaten before arriving at the airport and then having to eat fast food at the terminal or during the flight? A bit of preparing at home can help save you lots of calories, and perhaps heartburn as well. You can stock up on trail mix, healthy granola bars, apples, bananas, dark chocolate, almonds, cashews, chewing gum, etc… Heck, you can even prepare a sandwich or two, just make sure it doesn’t get too soggy by the time you get to eating it 5 hours later.

Yes, bringing your own food to your flight seems a bit dorky, but more and more people are doing it, especially now that many airlines do not provide complimentary meals.

Safe travels this holiday season!

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Do you want to make better choices in 2009? Here are five helpful pieces of advice from writer and chef Eric Burkett, for The Examiner:

1. If it claims it will change your life, it won’t. There are no miracle cures. Or diets. Or foods.
2. Read. Read everything: labels, news, and labels again. If you’ve been following this blog, you know that.
3. Know where your food comes from. This is theoretically good advice, but hard to practice.
4. Organic isn’t always the better choice. When Big Food takes over small organic companies, focus shifts from organic principles to dollars. Also remember that organic junk food is still junk food.
5. Finally, cook more of your own food. Amen.

photo credit: dno1967

The presidential election is here. Once in 4 years, we get a chance to decide the country’s future. This election, timed with a severe financial crisis and international restlessness, has led many to declare that the US is ailing and needs to be healed.

But what about each of us? People are ailing too. Six out of ten Americans need to lose weight, 24 million are diabetic, millions are suffering from hypertension and heart disease.

These elections are an opportunity for reflection on personal change as well. Personal change that comes from personal choices.

We choose our president once in four years; we choose our food once in four hours.

No individual vote shapes the future of the country, and no individual food choice will change the shape of someone’s body and health.

But just as the aggregate of all ballots set America’s future, the sum of a person’s food choices over the course of years sets her medical future.

So starting tomorrow, elect to eat better.

Vote for fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean dairy and meat.

Good luck America, and good luck each and every one of us.

Image via Wikipedia

1. Before going to the supermarket, make a shopping list. And then stick to it. Market research shows that 1 in 2 products in our shopping carts are an impulse buy. Many times these are not items we really need. Supermarkets are designed to lure us to into buying more more more in the 24 minutes we spend on average roaming the aisles. The enticements during our seven minute wait at the checkout counter are also unnecessary most times, yet expensive at all times.

2. Stop buying soft drinks! Hard to imagine, but you really are paying a lot of money for carbonated water mixed with food coloring and heaps of high fructose corn syrup. On average every man woman and child consumes over 50 GALLONS of soft drinks annually. A family of 4 switching to tap water can save over $500 a year! Go ahead, drink a glass of water and watch your piggy bank swell with pride. I this is too drastic, at least switch to 100% fruit juice.

3. Drastically cut down on sugary, salty, and fatty snacks. Limit yourself to 2 or 3 items per grocery trip. If your children protest, practice a revenue share model with them – for every dollar in grocery bills saved, they keep 50 cents.

4. Switch from brand name products to store brands. Whether frozen foods, dairy, staples, or canned goods, a store brand is usually just as tasty and nutritious, but costs 10-25% less.

5. Use coupons. Wisely. Don’t buy a year’s worth of canned prunes to save a dollar when the last time you had prunes was at your grandma’s birthday in 1993.

6. Shop less. Plan your shopping trips for once a week at most. Those short trips to the grocer for one item usually end up with many more items in your shopping bag.

7. Eat more homemade food, even out of the home. Prepare sandwiches for lunch; or bring leftovers in a Tupperware dish to heat in the office microwave.

8. Don’t throw away food. Bananas gotten too mushy? Toss into the blender, add milk honey, and ice cubes to get a wonderful smoothie. Stale bread? Check out some bread pudding recipes.

9. Go meatless a day or two a week. To some this may sound like an abomination, but statistically, vegetarians are healthier and live longer. For protein on your off days, try different types of beans, tofu, lentils, quinoa, and grains, with plenty of vegetables and fruits. Add nuts and seeds to salads, sauces and desserts.

10. Learn to cook. Cooking is NOT heating a canned soup or nuking a TV Dinner in the microwave. Really cook. you’ll be surprised how easy it is to prepare healthier and cheaper a tomato based pasta sauce when you do it yourself. Have the kids join and help you. There’s no shortage of recipe websites today, some include video tutorials.

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