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| Friday, January 16, 2009 |
| Exercise has no impact on weight loss!? |
The results of the recent study on exercise and weight loss are all over the news today. “Researchers from Loyola University Health System and other centers compared African American women in metropolitan Chicago with women in rural Nigeria. On average, the Chicago women weighed 184 pounds and the Nigerian women weighed 127 pounds.” They found that Nigerian women actually burned only 40 calories more per day through physical activity compared to women from Chicago, once adjusted for body size. They also found that the diet of the Nigerian women was high in fiber and carbohydrates, low in fat and low in animal protein, whereas the Chicago women’s diet was 40-45% fat and high in processed foods (and we can assume much higher in calories).
I will not discuss the benefits of exercise here, as I believe we all can rationalize them and Jennifer will probably have a field day with it. What I want to discuss is the fact that here in America we have an abundance of unhealthy, processed foods. It’s in our face, at all times, in obscene amounts. But if we compare with the French or Italians, they also have food every where. Their streets are lined with enticing restaurants and food venders of all sorts. But again, like I have mentioned many times, the difference is in the amount of “processed foods”. Processed foods may just be the missing link, who knew?
If we compare processed food with “regular food”, most of the processed food is lacking substance and is easy to chew due to the lack of fiber or “roughage” as it used to be called. One can prepare and eat a frozen dinner in 5-10 minutes; a few peas, a quarter of a carrot, some white rice or white noodles, three bites of chicken and some kind of sauce to make it moist and even easier to chew. There you go, 300 calories in just 5 minutes!
Compare this with a “non-processed” meal like: a roasted or grilled chicken breast, a baked sweet or regular potato and some cooked vegetables like carrots, peas or broccoli with a drizzle of olive oil. Both meals contain about 300 calories, but you can be sure that it will take longer to eat the chicken and vegetable meal than the boxed meal.
The extra time will allow one to receive the feeling of satiety released from the brain and reduce the amount of food eaten. The mixture of adequate amounts of protein, complex carbohydrates and fiber, will provide a constant flow of energy and satiety for hours. The processed meal will be easier to digest and require less energy from the body to metabolize. Meaning that the person eating the boxed meal will probably want to eat something again, and they will probably grab a chocolate bar or some other ‘processed” snack for another 300 calories to hold them until the next meal. There you have it, the tall and slender Nigerian women would save 300 calories right there with a snack. An extra 300 calories a day accounts for a 31 pound difference at the end of the year. Add another snack like that and there you have it, the 60 pound difference between women from Nigerian women from Chicago.
People tell me all the time “I eat so little, I really don’t eat a lot”. It’s not just the food selection, the amount of food, or how the food is prepared…it’s all of it together. But remember as a general rule, the closer foods are to their natural state the better and healthier they are for you. So don’t look for magic equations, pills or secrets, just be conscious about what you put in your mouth; think before you eat! Just as I wrote in my first blog: Your Body Is Like a Car. You wouldn’t put soda in your gas tank instead of gasoline, would you?
- Josée
Labels: healthy eating, Josee, Recent Research
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posted by My Sensei @ Friday, January 16, 2009   |
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There are a lot of weight diet loss plans that can help you reach your ideal weight, without harming you in the process. You need to know that when you eat right you will not only be healthy but lose weight the healthy way.
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There are a lot of weight diet loss plans that can help you reach your ideal weight, without harming you in the process. You need to know that when you eat right you will not only be healthy but lose weight the healthy way.