Give me the Facts!

The fight against America's obesity epidemic and for full-food-fact disclosure has been waging for years. And while no side has been named the clear champ, one middle-party is taking most of the punches--the American public.

Americans today eat out twice as much as they did in 1970--so shouldn't they have the right to know what they're eating? I sure thought so, but apparently it's not that simple.

In 2003, a California bill (SB 679) was introduced to the state Senate that would require fast-food chains or any other restaurant with 10 or more locations to disclose their nutrition data per request and post signs informing customers that the information is available. It has recently become a slow-growing trend, but this early effort was DOA.

Later that year, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) was joined by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and the Center for Science and the Public Interest (CSPI) to introduce legislation to help fight obesity. The Menu Education and Labeling (MEAL) bill would require fast-food joints to list their calorie counts on menu boards, and table-service restaurants on printed menus. It seemed to have some muscle behind it, but didn't have quite enough strength to push its way past introduction.

In 2005, McDonald's announced a new plan to add nutritional facts directly to the packaging, in addition to the information available at their website and brochures in stores. So when you're about to sink your teeth into a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, you know you're putting down 730 calories. It seemed like a win, but later proved to be self-defeating (knowing the startling nutritional facts after you buy the cheeseburger does not keep you from eating the cheeseburger)

All these efforts and others like them seemed like great attempts at one small step for mankind's health (and waistline), but without a law, many restaurants refuted and refused to comply. It was too much work, would take too much time, there was no way to be completely accurate. Maybe. But could restaurants' resistance stem from somewhere else? Maybe, just maybe, could companies like Cheesecake Factory not want consumers to know that hidden in one slice of Chocolate PB Cookie Dough Cheesecake is 1150 calories and 74 grams of fat? I'll place my bets on the latter.

The importance of these laws are indisputable. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of the nation's weight in 2006 is in dire need of intervention. Only four states had a percentage of obesity less than 20%. Twenty-two states had a predominance equal or greater than 25%, including Mississippi and West Virginia with obesity equal to or greater than 30%!

Luckily, the fight isn't over yet. Today, at least 14 states and three cities (NYC and Philly have made news recently) have passed or are working on laws to give Americans more of what they want: the facts!

Splurging Sans Guilt

During my ASME internship this summer, I had the privilege of meeting Sunny Sea Gold, Glamour's health articles editor. She came bearing gifts of humor, advice--and packets with all the you've-got-to-check-out places in NYC! After meeting her, I got hooked on her blog (each time I can't help but think: "Check out this journalism celeb. Ya, that's right, I met her!")

You never know what you're going to get, and that's what I love. It's a grab bag of personal anecdotes, expert advice, interesting links, and so much more! Kids in the Hall sketch anyone? If you haven't checked it out yet, go...do it now!

My newest find (besides the Starbuck's Cinnamon Dulce Latte with Sugar Free Syrup that I must try) is Hungry Girl, a site for food-lovers who want to enjoy the good stuff without doing permanent damage on the figure (right up my alley!). Chocolate peanut butter fudge with a mere 63 calories (and lonely gram of fat) or fettuccine alfredo with 80.5 calories and 3 grams fat sound too good to be true? Check out these and other guilt-free splurges--and indulge away!

The road back to accountability

It has happened to us all before. Right as we start to get a steady routine (be it fitness or diet or both), something inevitably sticks a fork in our straight and focused road. We must then decide which way to go--the easy, excuse-laden road that bats a blind eye when our unhealthy habits creep back in, or the hard, often uphill road that holds us accountable for every action (and inaction) and keeps us on track.

I have been a proud and active participant in Self's Reach Your Goal! one-month body makeover, and for three weeks, I religiously stuck by the program. I ate right. I was active every day. I logged my meals and activity on their website, and was tracking my steady progress. When I came to a split in the road, I opted for the healthy, responsible decision. That is, until last week.

My workload was piling up, and my stress levels were through the roof, so I eased them with "treats" that I "deserved" (neglecting the ideology about not rewarding or consoling your emotions with food). After back-to-back all nighters to prepare for exams, caffeine was my life-line, and my daily 8 glasses or more of water evaporated into one...maybe. My packed schedule found ways of filling up even more, so I "gave myself a break" from my habitual workouts. When my boyfriend offered to order pizza for dinner, I ecstatically accepted because I was too exhausted to think about cooking--and then I didn't think twice about the four pieces I scarfed down .

Before I knew it, all my hard work and focused determination was swirling down the drain. All the times I opted for veggies and yogurt rather than pizza and chocolate. The week that I successfully went without caffeine. My morning runs and afternoon workouts. All of it lay in ruins from my week-long haphazard lifestyle.

Everything was in disarray, especially my responsibility for my actions. For three weeks I carefully logged my meals and workouts on Self's website, mentally patting my back for a job well done. But as soon as I started to slip, I stopped my daily visits. I couldn't own up to the shift, and I definitely didn't want to see what I was doing. Tracking it would only tarnish my perfect record. Out of sight, out of mind--right?

Laying in bed last night, I ran out of excuses. I had spent a week terrorizing my health (and my figure), and not only was I incredibly disappointed, I didn't feel like me. I enjoyed being healthy, I missed the gym, I was sick of eating junk food and not getting enough rest. I had to get myself turned around, so I put my tennis shoes at the foot of my bed and set my alarm early. One gym visit and a six mile workout later, I was back on track.

Today starts a new month of my Self program, and I'm revising my expectations. No matter what, I want to face my decisions and be accountable for my actions--even when they include indulging in ice cream sundaes or chocolate cake!

"Grey" area

Last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy--which I had to wait and catch today (I work Thursday nights as a computer lab attendant, so Friday's are my time to catch up and watch online)--got me thinking: how often do we all get it so completely wrong?

Doctors bear the heavy burden of always having to get it right. No matter what, they are expected to take your signs and symptoms and correlate them to the exact cause--and treat it. Immediately. But when those signs and symptoms can indicate one of a hundred possible causes, that task becomes exponentially harder (and makes us all hope our doctors spent their decade of school getting straight A's).

Then add in a patient who omits "unimportant" details (like constant chest pains or frequent migraines), can't describe with any accuracy what his/her body is feeling, or is absolutely-positively sure he/she knows what's wrong, and it begs the question--when it comes to our health, do we lead our doctors astray?

Here are 5 of the most commonly misdiagnosed diseases, according to a recent CNN article:

1. Aortic Dissection: a potentially fatal disease (actor John Ritter died from it), it sometimes masks itself as "heartburn."
2. Cancer: some cases are "silent killers," (ovarian being one) not displaying any symptoms at all until it's too late. But doctors miss it too, according to a Harvard study on U.S. malpractice claims, so don't hesitate to get a second opinion if you think your doctor's missing something.
3. Clogged Arteries: with a national agenda of getting in shape, many doctors push patients that note "being short of breath" onto the treadmill when they should be pushing them into a hospital--and treating them for coronary artery disease.
4. Heart Attack: ever feel nauseous, full in the chest, or just not up to par? These can be symptoms of a heart attack, making it less than the cut-and-dry diagnosis most people think it is.
5. Infection: I didn't think I'd find this on the list, but the same Harvard study ranked infection post-cancer as the number one misdiagnosis.

So how do we know when heartburn needs more than Tums, when cramps need more than Midol, and when a fever needs more than a day's rest and a bowl of chicken noodle soup? Maybe we can't, but we should learn from Dr. Karev and stick to our guns when our intuition is yelling. If something doesn't feel right or won't go away, get medical advice. Prepare an accurate symptom play-by-play for your doctor: when did it start, what does it feel like, how long has it been going on, what makes it feel better, what makes it feel worse?

Don't like the verdict? Get a second opinion, or a third, or even a fourth. You know what your body is telling you, make sure a doctor hears it as well!

Way to go Mom!

My mom is an incredible woman. If she wants to do something, she'll find a way to get it done. But when she got the invitation to join some friends in training for a half-marathon, she worried it was a task she couldn't complete. While I was home for a few weeks over the summer, I watched as my mom dutifully stuck by her training schedule (permanently affixed on our refrigerator), filling out her mileage after every run. When she started out, she worried she wouldn't be able to hit 5 miles...then it was 7...then it was 10...then she didn't know if she could get those last 3.1.

I am so proud to announce that last weekend, after 2 hours and 27 minutes, my mom crossed the finish line of her first half-marathon!!! I was so proud to see her hit new heights she never knew she could reach. And now she's raising the bar even farther--she's already making plans for her first marathon next October!

I've always wondered if I could do a marathon, and after seeing my mom's success I know I at least want to try. But, my mom taught me to run for the right reasons. For her, running is therapeutic. She has to stay disciplined, pacing herself to the finish line. She's constantly running around, multi-tasking between work, family, and other obligations, but when she's out running--everything stops. Running's not about a number on a stop watch, a scale, or a number of miles, it's about being happy and healthy. There's no time in life to waste worrying about all the numbers, but there's certainly time to get out and run!

Congrats mom! Not just for crossing the finish line, but for finding your healthy getaway.

MSNBC's "A java jolt may boost, not wreck, your workout" was just what I needed to read as I sit here downing my morning mug of coffee, thinking about my workout in a few hours.

After reading through the American College of Sports Medicine's "Roundtable on Hydration and Physical Activity: Consensus Statements," here's what they said:

2. Caffeine, alcohol, and protein can modestly increase urine water losses.
A. Caffeine ingestion has a modest diuretic effect in some individuals, but does not affect water replacement in habitual caffeine users, so caffeinated beverages (eg, coffee, tea, soft drinks) can be ingested during the day by athletes who are not caffeine naive.

Fall is here and I couldn't be happier. Football season. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Beautiful weather. What's not to love?

But unlike it's summer cousin, which brings to mind heaping plates of fresh salads and a wide variety of fruits (all blanketed under one word: healthy), fall is a silent killer. We all know that Thanksgiving makes it hard for any diet to survive, but it's not alone.

Read Sarah Kliff's newest article, "The Eight Most Fattening Foods of Fall," at Newsweek's website. It's shocking what this season's iconic foods can do to your figure.

Moral of the story: While the weather is still beautiful, make some time to schedule in a few more workouts this fall--that way you can still enjoy (in moderation, of course) the fall and all it's glory (and fattiness)!

"Concussions and girls"

I was catching up on the past few days of CNN's Paging Dr. Gupta blog and today's entry caught my attention. "Concussions and girls" posted by Sharhreen Abedin dissects a recent study by the Journal of Athletic Training looking at high school athletic participation and frequency of concussions. What did they find? Girls suffer from more of them than boys. It's definitely worth a read, but this is the part that made me think:

What I find even more intriguing are the possible explanations behind the surprising stats. On one hand, researchers point to biophysical phenomena - for instance, the fact that boys have stronger neck muscles and larger heads than girls, so they can tolerate stronger blows.

But there is also a sociocultural explanation: The suspicion that girls tend to report their concussion symptoms more than boys, and boys hold back when they may be feeling a bit dizzy or nauseated because they want to be tough and keep playing, despite the potential long-term dangers of getting hit again too soon. (By the way, those possible dangers are no joke: repeated concussions can lead to long-term loss of cognitive function and memory loss.) And as far as returning to the field - coaches, athletic trainers and parents tend to be more cautious about letting girls back on to the court or field, more so than with their male counterparts.

So what is it? Are girls just not quite tough enough, or are boys too stubborn? I think it's not a boy v. girl matter, but a tough athlete v. sub-par one. I'll agree that society might "coddle" female competitors more than boys, but I refuse to accept the other explanation (that female athletes are crybaby's). As a former Division I athlete, I have my teammates bite their lips as their fight through everything from breaks to tears, concussions to dislocations just so they can stay on the field. I had a teammate (2 concussions deep) lie through a physical so she could get back out on the field (only to get another concussion). I'll accept that maybe biologically boys have a leg up, but I know that young women are just as tough (and stubborn) as any male athlete I have ever met.

Now you see it, now you don't!

We are powerless to ignore the clarion call of the candy jar, the beckoning of the buffet, the summons of the snack cupboard.

In one experiment, Wansink placed candy jars of chocolate in office workers' cubicles for a month. Simply having the candy closer meant the office workers ate five more candies a day. That adds up to 125 calories a day, or 12 pounds a year.

Whether or not we'd like to admit it, Brian Wansink, author of "Mindless Eating," has hit the nail right on the head. As he explains in this CNN article, we are "powerless" to the food that erks nearby.

I can testify to that.

Just last night, while my roommate and I studied through the night for our endless number of midterms, we reached our breaking point (I think it was somewhere between the third pot of coffee and the last Twizzzler). We took a break, only to regroup with some added company: a box of those iced animal crackers, a big bag of peanut butter M&Ms, and two bags of Sour Patch Kids.

These are a-bombs to my (somewhat) healthy eating patterns. I, for one, had not been craving any of those things--until, they were sitting right in front of me. Casually and subconsciously, my hand kept reaching into the bag of M&Ms. Within an hour, we looked at each other astonished (and half-disgusted)--everything was gone. Mr. Wansink, we would be great candidates for your next experiment.

Wansink's solution: Surrender. Accept that you will give in to temptation.

My solution: Keep all volatile items (ie. chocolate, candy, cookies, and ice cream) away from stressed, tired college students!