Dr. Mehmet Oz was a guest on the Oprah show again today, and wow was it ever a good one. I always love to see him on her show because he talks about everything you want to know about. He even talks about floating poop!

Dr. Oz has a new series on the Discovery Health channel [...]]]>

Dr. Mehmet Oz was a guest on the Oprah show again today, and wow was it ever a good one. I always love to see him on her show because he talks about everything you want to know about. He even talks about floating poop!

Dr. Oz has a new series on the Discovery Health channel where a group of experts conducted some amazing experiments that really change the way we think about food and how it affects our bodies. On today’s Oprah show, he gave us a preview of some of the experiments they did.

One experiment involved calcium and answered the question of whether eating a diet high in calcium helps you lose fat or not. The answer is yes it does!

Dr. Oz suggests eating at least one gram of calcium a day from dairy foods and other foods like prunes and leafy veggies. If you’re eating the right amount of calcium, you can actually double your fat excretion. If your body excretes it instead of absorbing it, your poop will float. Interesting huh?

If you aren’t eating enough calcium, you can take a calcium supplement, but make sure you also accompany it with a magnesium supplement or you’ll probably end up constipated. According to Dr. Oz, a good combination is 1200 milligrams of calcium and 600-800 milligrams of magnesium to keep you from getting bunged up.

Another extremely interesting experiment they did was with a group of people with high blood pressure which a lot of overweight people suffer from. This group of people lived in a zoo, yes a zoo, for 12 days and ate 11 pounds of raw fruits, veggies and nuts every day.

If you think about it, that’s actually a lot of food to eat in one day. But the results were extremely surprising to me. They dropped their cholesterol levels by 25 percent, their blood pressure went down by 10 percent, and they each lost 10 pounds! All of this in just 12 days!

Another eye-opening experiment they did was to see if detox programs really worked. 10 women were split into two groups. One group went on a detox diet for 10 days, while the other group ate things like pasta and potato chips. At the end of the 10 days, there seemed to be no difference in toxicity between the two groups.

Dr. Oz explains the reason why is because toxins go to the fatty tissues like the liver and brain, and it takes more than just 10 days to get them out. He doesn’t say detox programs are bad altogether though. He agrees that they are a good way to jump-start a healthy lifestyle and believes the detox diets should be called a jump-start diet.

Any time I see Dr. Oz on TV, I drop everything and watch. He’s one of my favorite people to watch and learn from when it comes to our health and bodies. You On A Diet, one of the books he’s co-authored with Michael Roizen, is a great book for anyone to read who wants to learn more about controlling their weight. This is one of the few “weight loss” books that registered dietitians can stand behind and recommend. Definitely check it out.

I absolutely love this idea, but there are a couple problems with it.

What happens [...]]]> Kelly D. Brownell, a psychology professor at Yale University has suggested that unhealthy foods like pop and chips should have a 7 to 10 percent tax on them. This would hopefully discourage people from buying them and opting for healthier foods instead.

I absolutely love this idea, but there are a couple problems with it.

What happens to the people who can’t afford anything but unhealthy, processed, packed-with-preservatives food?

Fresh fruits, vegetables and meat can cost more than these kinds of foods. There are ways to cut down the costs while still eating healthy, but most people don’t realize that or want to spend the time or effort to save that money.

The second problem is the fact that this kind of taxing hasn’t helped with cigarettes or alcohol yet.

If people want to smoke or drink, they’re going to do it even if the price keeps rising. If people want to have a bag of chips and some Coke for an afternoon snack, they’re going to have it.

However, if this tax was put into place, the money could hopefully go towards programs to help educate people to eat healthier and get more exercise.

Another option (and this one would be a lot better in my opinion) is to create these unhealthy foods with healthier ingredients and less saturated fat. It is possible for these food companies to do this, but it would cost them extra which is of course why they won’t.

Thankfully, some companies are seeing the importance of a healthier lifestyle and more and more food products are now coming to the shelves of our grocery stores with healthier ingredients – but not quickly enough. Could this ‘fat tax’ help?

Should the government put this tax into place? What do you think?

That’s why Transport Canada is asking for a new set of measurements of ‘heftier’ kids that may help set [...]]]> Because of the rise in childhood obesity, some big changes are in the works. 25 per cent of today’s children are at least overweight. 20 years ago, obesity rates were one third of what they are today.

That’s why Transport Canada is asking for a new set of measurements of ‘heftier’ kids that may help set new standards for different types of child vehicle restraints. It could also have a factor in how new air bags, crash-test dummies and other vehicle safety devices are designed.

The changes don’t stop there. It’s possible that medication doses could also be updated according to the new measurements. When you realize that this data hasn’t been updated since the 1970’s, that could be big.

It has to make you wonder where our children are going to be on the ‘obesity scale’ another 20 years down the road. Unless something drastic is done, it could be a scary thought.

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I’ve mentioned before that stress can be a contributing factor in weight GAIN, but as [...]]]> Nicole Richie has been all over the press lately for her extremely skinny look. It’s troubling to see how thin she is, but on the Tyra Banks Show, where she appeared as a guest, she blamed stress, not an eating disorder.

I’ve mentioned before that stress can be a contributing factor in weight GAIN, but as Nicole Richie proves, it can also be a big factor (the main factor according to her) in weight loss.

While you’re probably here to get some advice about LOSING WEIGHT, I hope that you never want to get to the point that Nicole is at. I feel sad for her because of the stress and negative attention she goes through, but WOW does she look disgusting.

Learn a lesson from her and take care of yourself. Find ways to reduce stress in your life so you don’t end up in one extreme (being too thin) or another (being too overweight).

Some changes include baking potatoes instead of frying them, offering fattier foods only once a week instead of each day, and [...]]]> I was happy to read this morning in my local newspaper that all three hospitals here in Saskatoon will be reducing portion sizes on fatty items like poutine and offering healthier options on their menus.

Some changes include baking potatoes instead of frying them, offering fattier foods only once a week instead of each day, and having whole wheat breads available. Since these changes have been implemented, not a single staff member has complained.

While this change obviously won’t cure worldwide obesity, it’s definitely a positive step in the right direction and hopefully this will encourage other facilities to do the same.

The growing rate of obesity and diabetes has prompted society to make changes that will directly affect how people are eating and how much physical activity they are getting. If we all make small changes like our hospital cafeterias have, these little steps will lead to one giant step in the battle for a healthier population.

“The report, requested and funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, lays out ways to help consumers manage their intake of calories from restaurants, cafeterias and ready-to-eat meals bought at grocery stores.”

It’s unbelievable how much people [...]]]> Finally, someone has spoken up about how restaurants contribute to obesity and how they can help turn it around.

“The report, requested and funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, lays out ways to help consumers manage their intake of calories from restaurants, cafeterias and ready-to-eat meals bought at grocery stores.”

It’s unbelievable how much people spend each month eating out. Hopefully, some changes like reducing portion sizes will help stop people from eating too much at a time at restaurants.

This is only one tiny little step in battling the obesity epidemic, but at least it’s a start. This, combined with more education about health and more programs to keep people active, should help change lives.