Welcome to my blog, where you'll find short tips, quick stories, resource links and other useful stuff about nutrition and weight loss. Its also where I rant and rave from time to time.17 December - Here's the guff on yet another mysterious weight loss ad
This ad appeared in yesterday's Sun-Herald Television Magazine. You'd think that the newspaper would deny such an ad publication with a claim of "Lose 7 Kilos in 10 days"?
So what's the ad selling and does it work? Here's some quick bullet points:
- Firstly, losing 7 kilograms in 10 days is dangerous and will reduce muscle mass as well as body fat.
- The ad is selling The Doctor's Diet, a book by Dr Michael Spira who after an internet search appears to be a medical practitioner in the UK.
- The book appears to actually be How to lose weight now and forever by Dr Spira or another book he's written, available at www.amazon.co.uk.
- Or it might be The Chelsea Diet?
- From the ad copy, this book could be simply a low-carb or low-GI diet book. I think the mystery of what this book actually is about is what's meant to get you to part with your money.
- You can pay $AUD$39.95 plus $9.95 p&h to find out or you can go your local bookstore and buy one of The GI Diet books by Australian expert Prof. Jenny Brand-Miller for less than $20.
10 December - Are diet shakes a good idea?
Diet shakes and meal replacements are big business at present and there's no shortage of products pushing the liquid calorie option - Tony Ferguson, Celebtrity Slim, Optifast, Xndo and more. But do they work and are they a smart choice for slimming?
Recent reseach studies of weight loss using diet shakes shows better results over a year or so, when compared to eating real foods. The reasons for this are likely to be:
- The calorie limitations of a shake diet due to portion control.
- The ability of people to stick to a program that doesn't have as many real food distractions.
- Quick results when starting a diet shake diet due to the low energy intake of around 5000 kJ or less.
But there are downsides, and this is why I don't think shakes are a good idea for the majority of people.- Without physical activity a shake diet as prescribed is likely to cause loss of muscle mass which will lower metabolic rate. This will be exacerbated if the energy content of the diet is low.
- Chocolate shakes, although yummy for some, will eventually become boring so you still need to consider real food.
- You may not learn real food skills or be able to eat socially.
- With chocolate shakes in the pantry, you could be tempted to snack and this can stack calories onto your food intake.
Take these pros and cons into consideration as they apply to each individual. I'm a foodie at heart, so I prefer real food. Regarding the future of diet shakes, I'm predicting that within two years the weight loss marketplace will be flooded with dozens of copy-cat slimming drinks. There will also probably be some bad publicity from people who have tried them and failed. It will be intetesting to watch how long the shake trend lasts.
1 December - Yay! Summer of salad starts today
December 1 is the beginning of yet another fantastic Summer of Salad. So, get stuck into your greens, oranges, reds and purples and enjoy nutrient-rich, energy-spares eating. There's even a song for the season.
