PCOS - Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Support Blog

By Dr. Nancy Dunne and Bill Slater
PCOS Health Review
Oct. 2008
www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com

In Chapter 3.4 of our book, we explain that the
water content of your food plays an important role
in weight loss and in having a feeling of satiety
after a meal.
 
We said that the water in the food itself is more
effective at controlling appetite and losing weight
than low-moisture food accompanied by a glass of
water.
 
This concept has now been verified by a study of
1,136 women conducted by the University of
Tokyo. The women consuming the most water in
their foods were the leanest. The women
consuming foods with the least water were the
most overweight.
 
The researchers also reported that drinking water
from beverages with meals had no impact on body
mass index or waist circumference. Only the
water within the foods was effective.

This is why we emphasize wholesome, high-
moisture foods in our recommended PCOS diet,
such as soups, salads, fresh vegetables and fresh
fruit.
 
Not only will you be able to better control weight,
you will also be a lot healthier!
 
Read the full article here.
www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/news66.html
 
Learn about our Healthy PCOS diet book:
www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/book

By Elisa Bosley
Cooking Light
CNN.COM / Health

• Manage weight loss by addressing your cravings rather than to always deny them
• Positive events trigger cravings even more than negative feelings, expert says
• Choose high-quality foods with nutritional benefits

It’s been another one of those days: places to go, deadlines to meet, meals to cook. You find yourself daydreaming about crisp, salty potato chips. Pretty soon it’s an insistent, must-have-it-now craving, and before you know it, your hand is deep in the bag.

Rather than berate your lack of willpower, once in a while, indulge yourself. In a 2007 Tufts University study of healthy women, 91 percent reported having food cravings (which the researchers define as an intense desire to eat a specific food). In other words, cravings are common, and the key to successful weight management, experts say, is learning to address cravings rather than always deny them.

“You first have to accept that having cravings is normal, but you don’t have to give in to every one,” says Tufts study coauthor Susan Roberts, PhD. “The people in our research who manage their weight the best are not those who crave foods less often but those who give in some of the time.”

Trigger happy

Brian Wansink, PhD, director of Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab and author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think,” has made a career of studying people’s behavior relating to food. He says cravings fall into two basic categories: snacks (with potato chips, ice cream, cookies, and chocolate leading the list) and meal foods (pizza, pasta, burgers, casseroles, and the like). Which comfort food you choose can be affected by age and gender. “Women tend to crave sweet stuff, men salty stuff,” Roberts says. “And premenstrual women’s cravings are more likely to be insistent.”

What triggers a food longing? Hormonal fluctuations are thought to be the cause in premenstrual women, though no one knows for sure, says Roberts. Other theories include a physical need for calories and emotional cues. “If you haven’t eaten for hours and you’re really hungry, that is a physical craving, and you should eat,” says Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. Emotional yens, on the other hand, may be set off by almost anything: a song, a person, a feeling, a situation that’s associated with a particular food — any reminder can kick a hankering into gear, “even if you’re not hungry,” Taub-Dix says.

Although stress is a commonly cited culprit, research shows that positive events trigger cravings even more than negative feelings, says Wansink. “In one of our studies, we rigged games so that people would either succeed or lose, and we found that they ended up having a stronger craving when they won.”

Strategies that work

Given cravings’ universal nature, experts agree that “if you deny all cravings, something’s going to backfire,” says Wansink. If you rarely enjoy a food you crave, you’re more likely to go overboard when you finally do give in. Indeed, according to the Tufts study, people who occasionally give in to hankerings manage their weight most successfully. These healthful strategies can help, too.

Eat regularly. Waiting too long between meals can turn normal hunger pangs into an out-of-control craving. “It’s hard to make a good choice when you’re starving,” says Taub-Dix. Her suggestion: Keep healthful options — energy bars, skim milk, even an almond butter and jelly sandwich — on hand to keep hunger in check.

Delay gratification. When a craving hits, slip your mind into rational gear by saying, “not now, maybe tomorrow,” suggests Roberts. Saying “later” rather than “never” may help decrease the frequency of cravings, she adds.

Keep it real. Eating an apple isn’t likely to satisfy a yen for chocolate. Instead, enjoy what you really want — in moderation. Wansink’s research shows that “each subsequent taste of a food is rated as less enjoyable than the previous taste. The first bite is always the best; the second bite, second best.” If you eat half of what you’d normally want, Wansink says, “your satisfaction rating [will still be] very, very high.”

Practice portion control. It’s easy to overeat if you munch straight from a box of cereal, for instance, or a bag of pretzels. Taub-Dix suggests portioning one-cup servings into zip-top plastic bags. “This way you won’t eat to excess.”

In fact, snacks are fine. The USDA Dietary Guidelines allow 100 to 300 “discretionary” calories daily (to calculate how many discretionary calories you can enjoy per day, visit MyPyramid.gov). An ounce of dark chocolate (142 calories), for example, or 1.25 ounces of baked potato chips (166 calories) fall well within that range.

Choose high-quality foods with nutritional benefits. Tapenade spread on a fresh baguette will offer salty-meaty flavor from the olives (as well as heart-healthy fatty acids) and tasty carbs from the bread. If chocolate is your weakness, go for gourmet dark chocolate, which offers beneficial antioxidants along with great flavor. If you want something creamy, try thick Greek yogurt drizzled with honey (you’ll gain some calcium as well as the rich creaminess you really want).

Keep a food diary. This can help if cravings are frequent and often lead to overeating. “I suggest my patients write down what they’re feeling” when they have a craving, says Taub-Dix. “It helps to transfer your feelings onto that piece of paper, and you may find you don’t have to eat.” Also note the types of food and even the times you eat; look for patterns so you’re not caught off guard. Addressing ¬underlying issues like physical hunger or ¬boredom or stress may help people minimize cravings, says Roberts. “The idea is to live with your cravings and not let them control you.”

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet.fitness/09/23/cl.cravings.eating/index.html

ALPHARETTA, Georgia (CNN) — Latin music pulses from the stereo as 40 women jump, shimmy and sway to the beat.

It’s not a dance club. This is a regular morning exercise class at the YMCA in Alpharetta, Georgia. It’s called Zumba.

Part dance, part aerobics, Zumba is an hourlong routine that works almost every muscle in the body.

“It is dance fitness,” explained Stephanie Maxim, one of two class instructors. “We teach them moves that you can see on ‘Dancing with the Stars’: salsa, mambo, cha-cha, and we put it into a group fitness format.”

“It’s not like a workout,” explained Diane Walterstiel, 55, of Alpharetta. “Before I come, I’m tense, but when I leave, I could kiss the world.”

Nearly a year after being introduced at the YMCA in suburban Atlanta, Zumba is the most popular exercise offering at the facility.

Alberto Perlman, co-founder and CEO of Zumba Fitness in Hollywood, Florida, wasn’t surprised when the concept took off not just in the United States but around the world.

“We turned exercise into a party,” Perlman declared. “Zumba broke some of the rules of fitness. We used music in the original form instead of using step counts.”

Perlman, whose background is in marketing, teamed up with Colombian dancer and choreographer Alberto “Beto” Perez in Miami in 2001.

“One day, Beto forgot his aerobics tapes, so he played his salsa and meringue songs during class in their original form,” Perlman said. “People went crazy. They didn’t feel like they were in a class with a drill sergeant.”

Perlman said Perez decided to call the exercise Zumba, after the Colombian slang word meaning to buzz like a bee or move fast.

Zumba is now a brand name. Since 2003, Perlman’s group has trained 20,000 instructors around the world and sold more than 3 million DVDs on the Internet and through infomercials, he said.

Heather Bleakman teamed up with Maxim to teach the Georgia YMCA session. She called the class a form of therapy.

“We see women change,” she said. “We see their faces light up.”

Bleakman stood at the front of the room and offered a high-impact version of Zumba for those who could keep up while Maxim focused on a slower low-impact routine.

Maxim warned participants at the beginning of class to modify the exercise to fit their needs. She added that wearing proper footwear is one of the best ways to guard against injury.

“In Zumba, we do a lot of pivoting, so you’ve got to have a shoe that has more of a flat base so you can move, or you’ll feel the torque in the knee,” Maxim cautioned.

Lilieth Burke, 48, of Alpharetta started attending Zumba classes a year ago and kept coming back because she appreciated “the simple composition of dance moves.”

Unlike other exercise workouts she’s tried, “Zumba is not a punishment,” she said.

Burke summed up the benefits: “I feel fit, I sleep better, I feel better, I feel younger, and I feel I can live another 48 years.”

By Ian Lyness
Insulite Laboratories’ Weekly Health Support Message

 
Adults who struggle with a liking for fattening food could have something other than will power to blame. New research suggests that frequent childhood ear infections may be linked to weight gain or obesity later in life.
 
A study says the infections may damage a vital taste-sensing nerve in kids, resulting in a preference for rich foods and making children prone to weight gain as adults.
 
People with a serious history of childhood ear infections appear to be about 70% more likely to be obese than those with no history of the condition, according to preliminary research at the University of Florida College of Dentistry in Gainesville.
 
Those who suffer harm to the crucial chorda tympani nerve — which runs through the tongue, along the side of the face and behind the eardrum on its way to the brain — may not realize why they can’t stay away from fatty foods that pack on the pounds.
 
Scientists long have known that damage to the chorda tympani nerve makes people prefer sweet, salty and high-fat foods such as butter, bacon, salted pretzels, ice cream and Oreo cookies. When the chorda tympani nerve doesn’t work, two other nerves take over. But people with this condition are drawn to more intense flavors and textures, says study leader Dr. Linda Bartoshuk.
 
Her research team discovered the apparent link between bouts of ear infections — known as otitis media — and obesity after analyzing voluntary surveys submitted by more than 6,500 people who revealed their history of ear problems, or lack of, dating back to childhood in the 1960s.
 
“We found that, without question, those with otitis media weighed more — and in many cases a great deal more — than those without,” said Dr. Bartoshuk. “If other people experienced the same allure of food, they’d be heavy, too.”
 
A balanced, nutritious diet combined with regular exercise can help reverse an underlying cause of excess weight and obesity, namely the imbalance of blood glucose and insulin called Insulin Resistance, which decreases insulin sensitivity. By reversing Insulin Resistance, it is possible to facilitate weight loss.
 
If left unchecked, obesity can also lead to the cluster of increased risks for heart disease called Metabolic Syndrome (Syndrome X) as well as Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) - a leading cause of menstrual irregularity and infertility, acne and other skin conditions, excess facial hair and female hair loss. Overweight women do not have a monopoly of this disorder, however. Up to 50% of PCOS sufferers may be females who are of normal weight or even lean.
 
Overweight men are at greater risk of prostate cancer. Insulin Resistance-linked weight problems are also associated in both sexes with Type 2 Diabetes. Before the onset of this latter condition, however, most people develop reversible Pre-Diabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are elevated beyond normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes.
 
If ignored, Pre-Diabetes may lead to the Type 2 variety, which can only be managed for the rest of a person’s life in the vast majority of cases. Many Diabetics require daily injections of insulin.
 
Type 2 Diabetes severely increases the risk of blindness, amputation and kidney disease, as well as a heart attack or stroke. Some 90% of people with Type 2 also suffer from excess weight or obesity.
 
 
 www.pcos.insulitelabs.com