The Life Ledger

Fitness is a way of life.

photo credit: thelifeledger

Childhood obesity is becoming such an epidemic that many schools are taking steps to increase the nutrition and exercise awareness of both their students and their students’ parents. Take, for example, this article covering changes recently instituted by five Philadelphia schools:

Five Philadelphia elementary schools replaced sodas with fruit juice. They scaled back snacks and banished candy. They handed out raffle tickets for wise food choices. They spent hours teaching kids, their parents and teachers about good nutrition.

As a result, “the number of kids who got fat during the two-year experiment was half the number of kids who got fat in schools that didn’t make those efforts.” Which is great, but of course not nearly enough. What we need is more education and awareness about what we feed our children. For instance, the cereal we feed them.

A recent article on Medical News Today about children’s cereal caught my eye. The article cites a recent study conducted by Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, which concluded that children’s cereals are higher in calories, sugar and salt than adult cereals, despite marketing claims to the contrary. The article goes on to summarize the study:

[Marlene] Schwartz and her colleagues examined 161 breakfast cereals from four leading manufacturers and compared nutritional values of children’s and nonchildren’s cereals to national guidelines. They found that when comparing nutrients per gram, children’s cereals were higher in calories, sodium, carbohydrate, and sugar, but significantly lower in fiber and protein. They also found that the majority of children’s cereals, 66 percent, failed to meet national recommended nutritional standards for foods sold in schools.

I couldn’t find a copy of the study itself, so I thought I’d conduct a spot-check myself. When selecting children’s cereal and adult cereal, I concentrated on marketing and shelf placement in the grocery store, as one Yale Rudd Center study points out that

Children are exposed to an estimated 10 000 advertisements for food per year, 95% of which are for fast foods, candy, sugared cereal and soft drinks (13). By pre-school, the child begins to have preferences for certain products and, according to McNeal, is a ‘consumer by influence’ (14). Advertisers place cereal boxes at child eye level because they know that toddlers can recognize brands of cereal and request them from their seat in the grocery cart.

Based on ads and shelf placement, I selected three cereals marketed as “healthy” children’s cereals and two “healthy” adult cereals, because let’s face it - comparing Trix to Allbran is just a tad unfair, and you shouldn’t be feeding your child that un-food anyway. Let’s see how they stack up.

Children’s Cereals

Cheerios

photo credit: Z(-_-)F

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 cup (28 grams)
Calories, without milk: 100
Sodium: 190mg
Sugar: 1g

Ingredients
Whole grain oats, modified corn starch, sugar, oat bran, salt, calcium carbonate, oat fiber, potassium phosphate, corn starch, wheat starch, vitamin E

Kix

photo credit: sajrow

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 1/4 cup (30 grams)
Calories, without milk: 110
Sodium: 210mg
Sugar: 3g

Ingredients
corn (whole grain corn, meal), whole grain oats, ugar, corn bran, modified corn starch, corn syrup, salt, calcium carbonate, trisodium phosphate, vitamin E, misc vitamins

Wheaties

photo credit: tape

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 3/4 cup (27 grams)
Calories, without milk: 100
Sodium: 190mg
Sugar: 4g

Ingredients
whole grain wheat, sugar, salt, corn syrup, trisodium phosphate, BHT, misc vitamins

Adult Cereals

All-bran

photo credit: davekellam

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1/2 cup (31 grams)
Calories, without milk: 80
Sodium: 80mg
Sugar: 6g

Ingredients
wheat bran, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, malt flavoring, calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, salt, sodium ascorbate and ascorbic acid (vitamin c), misc vitamins

Special K

photo credit: Paul Cheek

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 cup (31 grams)
Calories, without milk: 120
Sodium: 220mg
Sugar: 4g

Ingredients
rice, wheat gluten, sugar, defatted wheat germ, salt, high fructose corn syrup, dried whey, malt flavoring, calcium caseinate, misc vitamins

The Comparison

I think visually, so I’ve created a table with what I think are the most important comparisons to draw between the five cereals. *I’ve changed the serving size to make the numbers directly comparable.

The takeaway I get? Eat fruit, not cereal. If you need to serve cereal, Cheerios looks like the least evil. The other takeaway? I need to find a new recipe for my bran muffins.

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photo credit: Crissy Teena

I don’t know about you, but often business and vacation travel is an excuse to take a hit from the hamburger pipe, and extended travel means weight gain. In recent years, I’ve actually sought out hotel exercise rooms, which usually constitutes one treadmill, three TVs and eight people packed into a closet. However, it appears hotel food and exercise offerings are about to get a major uplift. According to a press release, Sheraton Hotels and Resorts has signed an exclusive deal with Core Performance to develop a training and nutrition program for guests that includes

new state-of-the-art fitness centers; healthier dining options; training programs offered on-demand in guest rooms; access to Core Performance’s customized on-line training programs; and a unique Conventions and Meetings program that enables enhanced performance. Sheraton properties around the world will begin to roll out Core Performance programming this summer and continue throughout 2008.

Hopefully, this move signifies a societal shift in exercise and nutrition. A Sheraton VP states “Our guests have told us that health and fitness are a priority and that they value tools to help them balance this aspect of their lives while traveling.” It’s exciting to see Sheraton use health and nutrition as a way to redesign its image and stand out from the rest of the hotel chains - hopefully Sheraton’s numbers rise and other hotel chains get on the nutrition bandwagon.

photo credit: SqueakyMarmot

When is eating healthy not … healthy? Apparently when you have a condition known as orthorexia, described as “an unhealthy obsession (as in obsessive-compulsive disorder) with what the sufferer considers to be healthy eating.” Weight of the Evidence points to a Chicago Tribune article on orthorexia, which treats the topic with more than a little tongue-in-cheek humor:

People suffering from the addiction—usually those righteous raw foodists, vegetarians and vegans—obsessively check labels, avoid junk food, plan menus and often eat a healthy diet so they can feel “pure.” Some even make fun of McDonald’s customers.

Orthorexics, for example, “tend to dwell on upcoming menus,” [Dr. Steven Bratman, who is credited with coining the term in the 1990s,] wrote. “If you get a thrill of pleasure from contemplating a healthy menu the day after tomorrow, something is wrong with your focus.”

Actually, planning meals is one of the skills a person needs to maintain a healthy body weight. The alternative—eating at restaurants—is a sure way to gain weight because “every time we eat out the calories are far higher than we intuitively imagine,” said Yoni Freedhoff, medical director of the Bariatric Medical Institute in Ottawa.

The article concludes that “Orthorexia, more often than not, is a non-medical term popularized by people who feel guilty that they aren’t eating better and need a name to call people who try harder.” However, the first commenter on the article suggests otherwise:

You clearly haven’t meet a person so devoted to their food it is killing them. I have met a person who has Orthorexia. This person was so depleted of nutrients that hospitalization was the only option. This person struggles to put any food in their body fearing it contains an unhealthy substance. Is that carrot organic enough? Was it next to a carrot that isn’t organic?

Personally, I think we already have a condition that explains that behavior - obsessive compulsive. Do we really need to cast a shadow over healthy eating by drawing an (in my opinion) unfair comparison to anorexia?

According to an article on WebMD, people may suffer from orthorexia and not even know it:

So what constitutes orthorexia?

• Are you spending more than three hours a day thinking about healthy food?
• Are you planning tomorrow’s menu today?
• Is the virtue you feel about what you eat more important than the pleasure you receive from eating it?
• Has the quality of your life decreased as the quality of your diet increased?
• Have you become stricter with yourself?
• Does your self-esteem get a boost from eating healthy? Do you look down on others who don’t eat this way?
• Do you skip foods you once enjoyed in order to eat the “right” foods?
• Does your diet make it difficult for you to eat anywhere but at home, distancing you from friends and family.
• Do you feel guilt or self-loathing when you stray from your diet?
• When you eat the way you’re supposed to, do you feel in total control?

If you answered yes to two or three of these questions, you may have a mild case of orthorexia. Four or more means that you need to relax more when it comes to food. If all these items apply to you, you have become obsessed with food.

Frankly, I’d say many people pay an annual fee for commercial diets that afford them the privilege to suffer at least 5 of the above symptoms.

photo credit: AntonOlsen

It’s a fascinating thing - the less sugar I eat, the less I crave it. In fact, foods that used to be “just right” are now way too sweet. Take, for example, the bran muffins I make for breakfasts. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (makes about 12 small-ish muffins). Only by leaving out all the sugar without substituting anything (not even agave) do these muffins taste right now. Here’s the full recipe:

AllBran Bran Muffins
Makes approximately 12 muffins

Ingredients:
• 2 Cups AllBran cereal
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• dash salt
• 1 tblsp baking powder
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/4 cup safflower/sunflower oil
• 1-2 mashed bananas
• Fruit and nuts to taste (I typically use cranberries, blueberries, walnutes, dates, plums and either peaches or pineapple)

Directions:
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Pour milk over bran cereal and let soak for 5 minutes.
• Add egg, banana, oil, fruit and nuts to milk/bran mixture.
• Separately, mix flour, baking powder and salt, then mix with milk/bran mixture. Mix together until well blended.
• (I skip this step and it works out OK) Grease muffin pan
• Bake for 25 minutes (time, of course, may vary with your oven and elevation)

Do you have a favorite bran muffin recipe, or have a suggestion for improving mine?

photo credit: loveberry

It’s not often I get to report on health news happening in my own back yard. Our local newspaper, Asheville Citizen-Times, conducted a non-scientific taste test on 6 different diet bars with a four-person panel. Here’s a summary of the bars tested and the panel’s responses:

Special K protein bar, chocolate peanut butter bar
“It kind of tasted like air, chocolate air. It’s not very filling.”

South Beach Diet meal replacement bar, chocolate crisp
“It wasn’t really chocolatey. It’s brown, but not chocolate … this is why people don’t diet.”

Atkins Advantage, chocolate peanut butter meal replacement bar
“You definitely need water with this … It has the texture of dirt.”

Kashi GoLean, high protein and fiber bar, cookies n’ cream
“Play-Doh. Edible Play-Doh; that’s what it tastes like!”

Zone Perfect, all-natural nutrition bars, strawberry yogurt
“Comparatively, I like it better. You can definitely taste the fruit, but it’s not fresh.”

Met-Rx Big 100 meal replacement bar, chocolate chip cookie dough
“It tastes like a dog biscuit.”

Read the entire article for all the panel reviews and some recipe ideas.

What about you - was one of your favorite diet bars slandered here? Do you favor one not mentioned? Let us know in the comments!