Restaurants Promote Extreme Eating

Most of us would agree that restaurants serve huge portions to us. I think we accept it as the American way. But I really don't think we understand how bad it is in some situations. I'm guilty of that too. Not following me, are you? Ok, take a look at this. Here is the Chipotle Calculator. I like Chipotle. And it seems pretty healthy. Why don't you see how many calories your order usually is. I ended up with 1,260 calories on my usual order. I haven't been back since I found this little tool. It kind of ruined it for me. There was an article I just read that talks about some items on menus that people are upset about. There's some restaurants that have menu items that are over 2,000 calories by themselves. That's a whole day's worth of caloric intake for a lot of people. Here in Houston, there's a dessert at the Cheesecake Factory that has 1,380 calories. And I thought my burrito was bad.

In related news, the restaurant that created the 15 pound burger a while back, recently created a 123 pound burger for sale at their restaurant. They are hoping to break the world record to 2 other restaurants that have 105 pound burgers. Read more about it. Is anyone else disgusted, or is it just me?

"Leigey said he didn't know how many calories were stuffed into his latest gigantic entree.
"If you were worried about calories you would be at home eating Kellogg's," he said."

Common painkillers raise heart risk

A recent Reuters story announces that Common Painkillers Raise Heart Risk. It appears that the painkillers aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen when taken by men most days of the week, were about 1/3 more likely to have high blood pressure than those who did not. Please take the time to read the entire article before you stop taking these medications. If you are suppose to take them, keep taking them. But maybe try to find a way to get to the point where you don't need them all of the time. The moral of this is, the less medicine you have to take, the better off you will be. But again, if you have to take it, don't stop just because of this.

Take One Step

PBS recently launched a website based off a recent documentary entitled, Take One Step. It talks exclusively about Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), the history, the causes, the warning signs, and how to prevent it. More of us will diet from CVD this year than from anything else. This isn't just men either. Did you realize that more women die from CVD than from 10 types of cancers combined. You are a lot less likely to die from Breast Cancer than you are from CVD. What baffles me is that CVD is preventable. Let me say that again, CVD is PREVENTABLE. Watch your cholesterol, don't smoke, keep your blood pressure low, eat healthy fruits and vegetables, and be active.

We, as Americans, have gotten lazy about so many things. We expect everything to be delivered to us on a platter. I'm just as guilty about this at times. We don't want to take the time to eat right, or exercise, or mow our own yard, or even read our own Bible. We truly are a spoon fed society. If it doesn't involve someone else doing it for us, we often don't do it. I don't know why we've become this, but it has to change. Go visit this website and watch the videos of the show (you don't even have to read it if you don't want to). Take measures to protect your and your family's health. Life is short. You don't have to make it shorter because of a few foolish decisions. Take care of yourself....you'll be glad you did.

New AHA Guidelines

In case you missed this in the news, the American Heart Association recently announced some new important guidelines. Here is a highlight of some of the recent changes:

- Recommended lifestyle changes to help manage blood pressure include weight control, increased physical activity, alcohol moderation, sodium restriction, and an emphasis on eating fresh fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy products.
- Besides advising women to quit smoking, the 2007 guidelines recommend counseling, nicotine replacement or other forms of smoking cessation therapy.
- Physical activity recommendations for women who need to lose weight or sustain weight loss have been added – minimum of 60–-90 minutes of moderate-intensity activity (e.g., brisk walking) on most, and preferably all, days of the week.
- The guidelines now encourage all women to reduce saturated fats intake to less than 7 percent of calories if possible.
- Specific guidance on omega-3 fatty acid intake and supplementation recommends eating oily fish at least twice a week, and consider taking a capsule supplement of 850–1000 mg of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) in women with heart disease, two to four grams for women with high triglycerides.
- Hormone replacement therapy and selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) are not recommended to prevent heart disease in women.
- Antioxidant supplements (such as vitamin E, C and beta-carotene) should not be used for primary or secondary prevention of CVD.
- Folic acid should not be used to prevent CVD – a change from the 2004 guidelines that did recommend it be considered for use in certain high-risk women.
- Routine low dose aspirin therapy may be considered in women age 65 or older regardless of CVD risk status, if benefits are likely to outweigh other risks. (Previous guidelines did not recommend aspirin in lower risk or healthy women.)
- The upper dosage of aspirin for high-risk women increases to 325 mg per day rather than 162 mg. This brings the women’s guidelines up to date with other recently published guidelines.

You can read more of this report at the AHA's website.

No Need to Diet and Exercise to Lose Weight

"No need to diet and exercise to lose weight" SHOUT IT FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!

What an amazing headline I ran across! Well if you don't have to diet and exercise to lose weight, please tell me how I can do it too! This is revolutionary!

Well, fittingly enough, this story was published in the Oddly Enough section of Reuters. If you have never read the Oddly Enough section of Reuters, you should. There are some pretty crazy stories in there.

Anyway, back to the story....the story simple mentions that there was a controlled study done where one group was on a diet and another group was on a slightly higher calorie diet and exercised too. It turns out both groups lost the same weight. Which means calories in and calories out still rings true. They just found a better way of getting your attention because of the headline.

For me personally, I would rather keep exercising my body and my heart and have a diet that is not torture. Regardless, nutrition is 70-80% of your results no matter what you do. So if you pick anything to change to improve your health, start with your diet.

Go Red For Women

This month is Go Red For Women month. Did you know that heart disease is the number one killer for women? What are your risk factors for developing heart disease?

Experts Devise New Women's Heart Risk Predictor
Improved Cardiovascular Risk Predictor Developed for Women
Prediction of Heart Disease Risk Improved

I have tried to get pins for everyone to wear and I was giving them away at my gym, but we keep running out. I want Katy, TX to be more and more aware of this as time goes on, and hopefully prevent some unnecessary deaths over the coming years.

Artificial Disks

I've known about artificial disks for about 2 or 3 years now. I had a situation where an anaesthesiologist wanted me to help out a guy after he had an artificial disk put into his spine. It appears there are still trials underway for the artificial disks. I was excited at the time to be considered in helping with the recovery after he had the artificial disk implanted, but I never had the chance to help him. It appears that after the surgery, he had no problems, and he actually started playing golf again after the surgery. It was quite a shock to hear that everything turned out great and he was able to go on with a normal life. I don't want to go into a whole lot of specifics on how this procedure is done, but it may very well be the future for those with degenerative disks.

This is just a post to share some stories happening around the U.S.

Innovative Collaboration to Help Curb West Virginia Obesity
I think it's great that West Virginia is taking important steps like this. I look forward to the day they do a story on Katy, TX!

Gaining Weight is Bad for Your Earning Power
While I hate bias among the world based on physical appearance, it's also good to know that people to work hard to get in better shape end up with a reward after all of the hard work. I truly believe anyone can make it if they make it a priority in their life.

Lap Band Surgery for Obese Youngsters
This really saddens me. Can't we all agree there's a better way?

The Crash Diet that Doctors Do
I just found this to be an interesting read. It's interesting how even the doctors have different opinions on what they should do to lose weight.

Obesity Ads Aim to Jolt Parents
Hmmm, no opinion on this one for now. Quite an interesting idea they are going with here.