Almonds either roasted, raw, or in an almond butter form will help reduce LDL, or bad cholesterol. And if you can, keep the skins. Almond skins contain flavonoid compounds what work synergistically with vitamin E from the almond itself, to help prevent LDL, of bad cholesterol, from oxidizing. Oxidation of LDL cholesterol is one of the steps to producing plaque formation and clogged arteries.

Squash is an excellent source of beta-carotene and fiber. The nutritional benefits of vegetables and fruits cannot be over emphasized. Attempts to use nutritional supplements to prevent cancer have sometimes led to poor health outcomes. Beta-carotene, when consumed in vegetable form, is associated with decreased rates of cancer however several studies demonstrated that beta-carotene, when consumed in supplement form, actually increased the incidence of lung cancer in smokers!!

You will notice that we prepare our soup by steaming. Not only do we feel this produces a better tasting soup than either baking or boiling, it also preserves 97% of the flavonoid activity. Flavonoids are an important class of anti-oxidants that have been associated with a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke and lung cancer. Reductions in flavonoid activity are substantial with other forms of cooking. Microwaving will reduce flavonoid activity by 97% and boiling by 66%.

1 Tbls. butter

1 Tbls. olive oil

1 onion, minced

2 shallots, peeled and sliced

1 3lb. squash, peeled and cut in half. Scoop put seeds and strings and reserve.

6 cups water

1 tsp. salt

3 medium sized bosc pears, seeded and cubed

1 Tbls. ginger, peeled and sliced

1 Tbls. ginger, peeled and grated

fresh chives

½ tsp. freshly ground pepper

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Melt butter and oil in large heavy bottom dutch oven and cook over medium-low for 1-2 minutes.

Add shallots and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are translucent, about 3-5 minutes.

Add the seeds and strings to the shallot and butter mixture and cook a few minutes more until the mixture turns a deep yellow color. Add water, salt, and sliced ginger and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, reduce heat to medium low and place squash, pears, and sliced shallots in steamer basket. Grate 1 Tbls. ginger on top. Cover and steam for about 20 minutes, until very tender.

Remove pot from heat and transfer squash, pears, and shallots to a large bowl.

Strain the steaming liquid through a mesh strainer into the bowl with the squash. Discard the seeds and solids.

Puree in food blender.

Add in pepper and nutmeg and adjust seasonings to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with fresh chives.

There’s no doubt about it.  Refined foods are making us fat.  Once you understand why then you can get serious about Fat Loss and losing weight.

Loaded with calories, refined foods play havoc on our endocrine system.  What’s that you ask? I say endocrine system because these foods directly affect not only your pancreas which produces insulin that helps regulate blood sugar but also your fat. Yes your fat is part of the endocrine system and what your putting in your mouth is most likely adding to fat accumulation.  I know, say it ain’t so.

When we eat processed carb foods, you know the cakes, cookies, breads, crackers etc your blood sugars go nuts. In response you release insulin which stores FAT. So the more refined carbs you eat the fatter you’ll get. These refined carbs will not only make you fatter, but prevent your body from using all the excess fat you have from being used as fuel!  And the more fat you have will make the insulin you have in your body less effective, so guess what?  You release more insulin which makes you fatter!!

Break the cycle.  The key is more unprocessed foods. You’ve heard about how we’re supposed to eat 25-35 grams of fiber, well that’s probably not enough.  Our bodies evolved on a diet that is over 100 grams of fiber a day! When you see most Americans struggle to get even 15 grams of fiber in their diet you see why we’re in trouble.  When I say fiber I mean fiber in whole unprocessed fruits and veggies, not the processed crap you buy in the store.  No shortcuts.

Losing weight: It’s about total calories and not necessarily fat content

Over the past several decades nutritional recommendations were made to reduce fat content as a public health strategy to lose weight.  While much emphasis has been placed on the fat content of food the real determinate of weight gain is total calories.  As we learned in the energy density section, since we eat the same amount of food a day it is energy density (calories per gram of food) which determines calorie intake and not necessarily fat content.

Many “low fat” products have the same energy densities and consequently the same number of calories as high fat foods.  For instance, crackers are as energy dense as many types of “high fat” cheese.  Dry foods have high energy densities while high fat cheese has a higher water content which lowers its’ overall energy density.  In fact it has been postulated that this emphasis on low-fat but energy dense foods has lead Americans to consume more calories leading to rising levels of overweight and obesity despite a drop in overall fat consumption.1

That being said individuals highly successful at weight loss (National Weight Control Registry) report consuming a calorie restricted, low fat diet consisting of 24% fat.2  These individuals also report higher intakes of vegetables and fruits which lowers the overall energy density and calorie content of their diet.  Just remember it is total calories that are important and lowering the fat content can be an effective strategy to cut calories as long as you are not substituting for high energy dense foods such as found with many refined carbohydrates.

1.    Too much of a good thing?  J Am Dietetic Assoc 1995;95:417-18
2.    Persons successful at long-term weight loss and maintenance continue to consume a low-energy, low-fat diet.  J Am Diet Assoc 1998;98:408-13

Weight gain is simply a matter of energy balance; if this energy balance is positive we gain weight. Americans are eating more both in the home and at fast food restaurants and this has been contributing to the positive energy balance portion of the ledger.

We are all witness to the “supersizing” phenomenon we see at restaurants. Food portion sizes have increased for all food categories except pizza from 1977 to 1996.¹ Some examples include: salty snacks from 1 to 1.6 oz (22 calorie increase), soft drinks from 13.1 to 19.9 oz (12 calorie increase), hamburgers from 5.7 to 7 oz (23 calorie increase), French fries from 3.1 to 3.6 oz (16 calorie increase) and Mexican food from 6.3 to 8.0 oz (31 calorie increase). Remember every calorie counts; creating a positive energy balance of just 2.4 calories a day translates into an extra pound of weight per year.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is used as an assessment of total body fat and is calculated as follows: BMI = weight (kg)/ height squared (m²)

Age and sex will influence BMI as a measure of total body fat:¹

• As we age BMI will underestimate total body fat since we tend to lose lean tissue and gain body fat. For men and woman with a BMI of 23 body fat will increase by 1.0-1.1% and 0.7-1.0% respectively per decade.

• Woman will have significantly greater amounts of body fat than men at equivalent BMIs. A 20 year old woman and man with a BMI of 23 would have 26.0% and 13.3% body fat respectively.

1. How useful is body mass index for comparison of body fatness across age, sex and ethnic groups? Am J of Epidemiol 1996;143:228-39

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are important parts of a healthy diet and are found in foods like fish, olive oil, and walnuts.  These are the heart healthy fats that raise the HDL “good” cholesterol and lower the LDL “bad” cholesterol. 

The results of the Nurses’ Health Study, a longitudinal study of diet and lifestyle factors among 80,000 female nurses, suggest that monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are beneficial in preventing heart disease.¹ In this study by Dr. Walter Willet at the Harvard school of Public Health, a 5% increase in monounsaturated fats was associated with a 19% reduction in coronary heart disease. Similarly for a 5% increase in polyunsaturated fat a 38% reduction in coronary heart disease was found. 

Omega-3 a type of polyunsaturated fatty acid found in fish, soybeans and walnuts, deserves particular mention for its’ cardio-protective effects.  Persons eating just one fish meal per week decreased the risk of cardiac death by 52%.² In another study, patients who had survived a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and consumed daily fish oil capsules containing omega-3 reduced their risk of cardiovascular events by 20% over 3.5 years.⁵

1.                  Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women.  NEJM 1997;337:1491-9

2.                  Fish consumption and risk of sudden cardiac death.  JAMA 1998; 279:23-28

The National Weight Control Registry is the largest study ever of individuals who were highly successful at weight loss.¹ To enroll in the Registry participants needed to have lost 30 lbs and have maintained the loss for a year or more. Registry participants actually did much better; on average 784 participants (629 women and 155 men) lost 66 lbs and maintained a minimum 30 lb weight loss for 5.5 years.

Some key strategies employed by these individuals include:

Gelatinization – The more starch granules are swollen and burst during cooking the higher the GI. For this reason baked potatoes have a high glycemic index (85) whereas pasta is unique in that the internal starch granules are entrapped and not as swollen leading to lower glycemic values (30-60). Pasta cooked al dente (slightly uncooked core) has an even lower glycemic value because of this.

Amylose to Amylopectin ratio - The Amylose to amylopectin ratio similarly determines a food’s glycemic index by the amount of gelatinization that occurs. Foods with higher amylase (which less readily gelatinize and digest) have lower glycemic values than foods with higher amylopectin (which more readily gelatinize and digest). For example basmati rice with higher amounts of amylase, has a lower glycemic value (58). Conversely, Japanese style white rice with lower amounts of amylase, has a higher glycemic value (83).

Processing - Grinding wheat into smaller particles increasing the surface area for digestive enzymes. The more finely milled the higher the glycemic index. In this example the degree of processing determines the relative glycemic index of wheat (whole wheat < cracked wheat < course four < white flour).

Fiber – This depends on whether the fiber acts as a protective barrier or not. For instance most wheat bread (73) has the same glycemic index as white bread (70) because the fiber is not intact and does not play a protective role. When fiber plays a protective role to digestive processes such as is the case with stone ground (cracked kernel) wheat bread the glycemic value is lower (53).

Dr. David Jenkins at the University of Toronto developed the glycemic index to more accurately describe how different carbohydrates affect blood sugar levels.  The higher the glycemic index value the more easily a given carbohydrate is metabolized into glucose and the greater the resulting insulin response.

White bread or glucose is used as the reference food where the glycemic index for each is set at 100.  It’s important to know which reference is used when comparing glycemic index numbers because the white bread based glycemic index value will be higher for a given carbohydrate than the glucose based glycemic index.  To convert the white bread based glycemic index reference value to the glucose based glycemic index reference you multiply by 0.7 (the glycemic index of white bread is 70 on the glucose reference based standard).  To avoid any confusion I will only use the glucose reference standard.¹

High glycemic foods (65 and above) include things you would expect like jelly beans (78) but also items you may not expect such as baked potatoes (85) and white bread (70).  In this example “complex” carbohydrates such as potatoes can have a greater impact on blood sugar than “simple” sugars such as found in jelly beans.