Spring 2004 Edition

Atkins in Fair Lawn   By Linda Rosen, Certified Medical Exercise Specialist      Last week I was having lunch with two women, both on low carb diets. That’s all I’ve been hearing about lately - low carbs!! One was eating an Atkins low carb bar for dessert which looked like a chocolate bar. I read the ingredients but wasn’t able to pronounce most of them. I don’t think it’s a good idea to put something into my body that I can’t even pronounce. The other woman was having homemade eggplant parmesan made with good ingredients, no carbs, but it did have Splenda, the new sugar substitute, which I’ll get to later in this article. In addition, she had a large steak salad. Either entree would have been sufficient for lunch, but both was going overboard. I had a tossed salad with some turkey, Swiss cheese, shredded carrots, and cucumbers. I also had eaten oatmeal with fresh blueberries for breakfast. My two meals combined had less calories than each their lunches.    To lose weight, it makes sense to lower your caloric intake. Less calories in and more calories out, through activity, means weight loss. According to an article in the Jan. 2004 IDEA Health & Fitness Source, the high protein diets work because of calorie restriction, not the low carbs. The diets allow steak and béarnaise sauce, bacon cheeseburgers without the buns, lobster with butter sauce. Eating a diet high in fat is filling. You will eat less calories because you are consuming a great deal of fat and just won’t be hungry. But, our bodies need complex carbohydrates for cell function, brain function, and elimination. Why are we now told that oatmeal and other whole grain cereals and breads and fruits are bad for us? Everything in moderation, folks!  Eat from all of the food groups, your body depends on all the nutrients to function at its optimum level. But eat less, and more often. Eating several small meals throughout the day will keep your metabolism up to continually burn calories. Because I hear so many people talking about their low carb diet, be it Atkins, South Beach or whatever, I went to Subway on Fair Lawn Avenue to look at their low carb menu. They have an “Atkins Friendly Wrap” which alone is 130 calories. By itself it has 16 calories from fat, 500 mg of sodium, 16 g. carbs, 11 g fiber, 12 g protein. Once you add the chicken, cheese, bacon and ranch dressing to the wrap you are up to 480 calories for the sandwich!  A little less caloric is their turkey,bacon, cheese melt wrap at 430 calories.  Looking further at their menu I found 6” subs and sandwiches with less calories than the wraps. If you want to eat at Subway you could have the 6”Steak & Cheese with 390 calories, the Tuna on Deli Round with 330 calories, or the Honey Mustard Ham at 310 calories.  All do have more carbs but less calories and all have less fat than the wraps.  Since the wrap alone has more fiber than their other breads it probably is a better choice since our bodies need fiber and burn up those calories faster than the white breads.  I might choose to have one of Subway’s other sandwiches such as the tuna on the Atkins Friendly Wrap for more fiber and a total of less calories than the wraps listed on the menu. It all seems confusing. Eating everything in moderation is my preferred method weight control. Continuing on my quest re: low carbs I asked at the Modern Bagel Cafe on Fair Lawn Avenue if they have been effected by the low carb craze. I was told that some customers mention they are on low carbs but in general they are selling as many bagels as ever. At Sammy’s Bagel and Deli on River Road Jennifer told me they have new customers because they offer a low carb bagel. I couldn’t imagine what it would taste like made from soy, so she offered me one. Both my husband and myself enjoyed it. It was good, though a little doughy. Can it really be made without any white flour? The literature claims is has 92.5% total dietary fiber made from “ food grade soy fiber”. If it is legitimate then a “no carber” can have their bagels. But, I wasn’t able to find out the calorie content. There is a distinction from “low carb diets” to “no carb diets”. It seems that carbs are prohibited in the inital phase of these diets such as Atkins and South Beach. Linda Coll from Radburn told me that the first two weeks can be difficult but after that “it’s a piece of cake, you should pardon the pun”. After the first two weeks on the South Beach diet, which she is on, she will be enjoying whole grain breads and cereals. She can have a bowl of oatmeal! She hopes she can make it the two weeks without a piece of bread. Eileen Gil, another Radburn resident, is trying to cut back on her white foods, also. She’s eating low carbs but high fiber. Congratulations to both of these women and anyone else who changes their eating habits to include high fiber and lessen the amount of white foods that they eat. What do I mean by “white foods”? They bring the fat right to your belly! Pasta, potatoes, white breads and rolls, white rice, white sugar (as in cookies and cakes), etc do not break down in the digestive track as fast as whole grains, sweet potatoes, brown rice, and beans for example. Therefore, you get a bigger gut! It has been suggested that we should eat a “colorful plate”. That way we have to choose food from all the food groups because it is the fruits, vegetable, and legumes that have the color. After talking with both Linda and Eileen who originally said they were on a “low carb diet”, they changed their wording. They are not “on diets”. They are changing their eating habits. A diet is something you go on and off, a change of habits becomes a life long way of eating. The three of us agreed that diet is deprivation and if you deprive yourself totally you will eventually binge. As stated in the Jan.2002 article mentioned above, high protein diets aren’t the weight loss secret. As with most things in life, balance is key, and most people can lose weight by eating small meals throughout the day preventing hunger and keeping the metabolism high. Eating small amounts of fat and protein at every meal will make you feel satisfied and full. So don’t miss snack time, just make sure your snack is nutrient dense, not sugar dense as in cookies. Consuming vegetables and fruits that contain fiber will promote health and longevity. Plus, exercise to promote weight loss. Followers of the Atkins diet claim it reduces cholesterol levels. A study was done in 2002 and funded by the Atkins Center for Complementary Medicine (I find that questionable).  According to Katherine Tallmadge, MA, RD, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, “The Atkins study trial lasted only 6 months, but what happens after 6 years?” Many experts believe that eating a diet high in saturated fat may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease over the long term. Earlier, I promised that I’d write about Splenda, the new sugar substitute. Splenda is an ingredient in many of the low carb manufactured foods, since sugar is a simple carbohydrate and can not be eaten in these diets. Sugar, in general, should not be consumed in large amounts if you want to lose weight or keep to a healthy weight. But is Splenda the answer? It seems as though many people will consume large amounts of this chemically manufactured ingredient without knowing what they are putting into their bodies. Splenda is an artificial sweetener which is produced by chlorinating sucrose (table sugar). It is an artificial chemical that may be like ingesting tiny amounts of chlorinated pesticides. Splenda is not natural so your body doesn’t recognize it. It doesn’t know what to do with it. No long term human studies of its effects have been done. According to the Sucralose Toxicity Information Center (sucralose is the chemical name for Splenda), no monitoring of health effects have been done. It took decades for government agencies to agree that there were countless deaths from tobacco because on no monitoring or epidemiological studies. The same is happening with Splenda. Wherever you choose to eat, remember nutrient dense foods are the healthiest and “less in, more out” is the way to lose weight. Be active!  Send your fitness questions to: lrosenlaci@att.net     See Linda Rosen's Previous Columns Walkability and Obesity (Winter 2004) Get Out and Walk  (Fall 2003) Get In The Water  (Summer 2003) Yard Work Can Really Hurt Your Back (April 2003) Exercise Equipment  (February 2003) Great Places To Walk  (December 2002) On The Tennis Court - Part 2 (October 2002) On The Tennis Court - Part 1 (August 2002) Core Exercises (June 2002) Keep Your Belly In  (April 2002) Improving Your Posture  (February 2002)