Photo by yomi955

Cutting processed foods and refined sugars out of your diet is arguably the most important dietary change you can make to improve health and lose weight. But will one slice of birthday cake inevitably tighten your pants and cut your life short?

Not necessarily.

Quality of life is hard to measure, but it certainly involves some balance between good health and hedonistic enjoyment of things that might not be perfectly healthy. The question is how we find this balance for ourselves, and how do we make sure our behavior helps us keep that balance?

The answer, of course, will be different for everyone. Competitive athletes have higher physical demands for maintaining ideal health than, say, a scientist. And I’m not a fan of watering down my favorite foods–especially desserts–with “healthier” ingredients. But there are a few general guidelines that can help the majority of us live a little without constantly fighting the battle of the bulge.

9 Tips For Dealing With Dessert

1. Eat dessert once per week or less

As a general rule I try to keep my dessert consumption to once per week or less (it is often less). A larger person may be able to get away with a bit more, but setting a weekly maximum can help you keep tabs on your sugar consumption. If you are actively trying to lose weight, aiming for once every two weeks or less is ideal.

Sugar is problematic for several reasons. Most of you probably realize by now that excess sugar causes rapid blood sugar and insulin spikes that force extra calories to be stored as fat. Over time these spikes will alter your sensitivity to insulin, negatively impacting your metabolism and risk of type 2 diabetes. Extra insulin signaling is also associated with heart disease, high blood pressure and accelerated aging.

The less refined sugar you eat the better, but assuming most of us aren’t willing to give it up completely it is helpful to have a weekly maximum to keep consumption in a reasonable range.

2. Pick your occasions

Once you decide to budget your sugar consumption, it is time to start choosing your priorities.

Is your weekly group meeting at the office (the one where there’s always doughnuts) really a special occasion? In other words, is that stale chocolate doughnut you wolf down while half asleep really worth the extra workout or skipping dessert with your kids this weekend? Probably not.

If you think about it, there’s a good chance you don’t even enjoy that doughnut as much as you assume you do. And we both know you’ll feel horrible after eating it anyway. So why do you believe that you want it?

When you stop and really think about your food choices, you’ll often find that many of them come from conditioning rather than true preference. But just because 12-year old you liked low-quality sweets doesn’t mean the adult you has to continue eating them.

Save desserts for the times that are really worth it, and realize you aren’t missing much by skipping the Costco brownie bites.

3. Don’t eat dessert alone

Special occasions are moments of celebration you share with people you care about. One of the wonderful things about life is these moments happen all the time. Our weeks and months are perpetually marked by birthdays, weddings, promotions, vacations and a million other reasons to celebrate. Use these special times as cues for when to indulge.

On the other hand, there is nothing particularly special about sitting alone on your couch watching TV. Try to get out of the habit of eating dessert alone, especially if this is something you rely on for comfort. If you just want something sweet, try having a piece of fruit or some herbal tea instead.

I recommend not keeping any pre-made desserts in the house at all. Why torture yourself?

4. Know dessert when you see it

If you’re eating dessert several times a day but only think you are eating it once or twice per week, none of these rules are going to help you maintain your health and physique.

Last week I wrote about the hidden sugars in common foods such as sandwiches, salads and fruit yogurts. There are clearly benefits to eating a salad, but syrupy dressings contribute to your sugar intake whether there is lettuce around or not. Overly sweet non-dessert foods make it more difficult for you to enjoy real indulgences without consequences.

Be aware of the sugar content in the foods you eat and actively try to minimize it in the bulk of your diet (i.e. choose sandwiches without teriyaki or BBQ sauce, salads with savory (not sweet) dressing, cocktails without juice or syrup, and plain yogurt).

If you’re eating healthy and minimizing sugar 90+% of the time, your waist will hardly notice the occasional birthday cupcake.

5. Little indulgences count

Just as you cannot ignore the 27 grams of sugar in Yoplait yogurt, you can’t grab 2 or 3 pieces of candy every afternoon from the bowl in the office without it adding up.

Be aware of the little cheats you make throughout the week and don’t kid yourself about their impact. If you decide that the work day is just too hard to get through without these, that’s fine. But you aren’t doing yourself any favors by pretending they don’t exist. Remember to count them in your mental dessert tally and keep it in mind when you’re looking lustfully at your grandma’s homemade apple pie and wishing you hadn’t had so much sugar this week.

6. Choose quality over quantity

If your goal is to limit your sweets but you don’t want to feel like you’re missing out, make sure your choices emphasize quality over quantity.

A few bites of good quality dark chocolate is infinitely more satisfying than a handful of Hershey’s kisses. Desserts can rack up 25-100 calories per bite. Get the most bang for your buck by picking foods with actual flavor and not just extra sugar and salt.

Hint: This tip should also help you stick to tips #2 and #5.

7. Go splitsies

Half a dessert is 100% better for you than a whole dessert.

If you really really want to try one of those cookies your co-worker has been bragging about for months but have already had your ice cream this week, try taking only half of one. Better yet, find someone to split it with you so you aren’t tempted to finish it. If it’s that good, a few bites should be plenty satisfying.

8. Resist peer pressure

Some people take a special pleasure in encouraging others to do things they know are bad for them. These people also tend to be good at recruiting others to join in their banter.

Be prepared to get nagged occasionally for not wanting to eat foods that aren’t worth it. But if you have decided in advance to stick to desserts you know taste better than what your friends are pushing, it really isn’t that hard to ignore them.

Who’s really missing out here?

9. Use the gym

Despite our best efforts, we all eat too much dessert every now and then. This isn’t good, but it isn’t the end of the world either.

When this happens to me I use it as an opportunity to amp up my workout routine. By far my best runs are on days when we have birthday cake in lab–I feel like I can run for days with all my extra energy.

Your muscles use sugar as fuel, so use it up while you can and give your metabolism a little boost (having a little extra blood sugar and insulin around when you’re exercising can actually improve your metabolism) and prevent those spare calories from being stored as fat.

You’ll probably feel better after working it off too.

How do you deal with dessert in your healthstyle?

Tags: blood sugar, dessert, insulin, insulin sensitivity, sugar

Many studies have been published associating lack of sleep with increased body weight, but I have never read through the literature myself to explore the connection.

This week fellow scientist Matthew Constantin of Best Weight Loss Triumph gives us a thorough review of the science of sleep and weight gain.

Matthew Constantin, PhD, is a biologist and postdoctoral research scientist at Saint Louis University. Twice awarded research grants from the American Heart Association for his studies on cardiovascular disease, Matthew also has a keen interest in the related field of obesity treatment and enjoys explaining the latest scientific research on weight loss in a way that is easy for everyone to understand.

His website contains reviews of some of the so-called best rated weight loss programs and offers a savings coupon for Medifast, a clinically studied weight loss intervention.

Obesity and Reduced Sleep: Will Sleeping Less Make Me Fat?

By Matthew Constantin, PhD

We have long known that too little sleep causes fatigue and a slowing of neurocognitive functions, resulting in a variety of symptoms like slowed reaction time and difficulty concentrating. Recent research, however, has discovered a new result of reduced sleep: metabolic effects that include an increased risk of obesity [1].

Western society has seen a rapid rise in overweight and obesity in recent decades. Accompanying this widespread weight gain has been a significant and rapid decrease in the amount of time the average person spends sleeping.

While young adults were sleeping close to 9 hours each night at the beginning of the 20th century [2], this had decreased to less than 8 hours by the late 1960s [3]. The trend is continuing into the 21st century. As of 2005, 16% of American adults were getting less than 6 hours of sleep at night, up from 12% in 1998.

Sleep and Obesity: A Subjective Study

Science has linked self-reported sleep habits and obesity for a number of years, but the precise relationship between the two has been difficult to establish. Because obesity is a risk factor for a number of diseases that can negatively impact sleep, such as sleep apnea, asthma, depression, and arthritis, it is hard to know whether reduced sleep leads to obesity or obesity leads to reduced sleep.

To shed some light on this question, data collected from 1986 to 2002 in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) was analyzed [4]. Women in this study were asked to report their sleep habits and body weight every two years.

The results of the study suggest that women who self-report receiving less sleep are more likely to gain weight and are at an increased risk for obesity in middle-age. In 1986, when the first round of data was collected, it was found that women who reported sleeping 7 hours in a 24 hour period weighed 2.6 kg less than those who slept 5 or fewer hours, and 1.3 kg less than those who slept 6 hours.

This pattern continued over the following 16 years, with women who reported getting 5 or fewer hours of sleep weighing the most every time weight data was collected and those getting 7-8 hours of sleep weighing the least. In 2002, those in the 6-hour group had gained 7.2kg (15.8lb) and those in the 5-hour or less group gained 9kg (19.8lb), while those in the 7-hour group had gained only 4.8 (10.6lb) kg.

Other prospective studies have found similar results among both adults and children, but there are a couple of caveats. Because the information in the studies is self-reported, it is subject to inaccurate estimates by the reports. Many people overestimate sleep time when self-reporting. It is also unknown whether shorter sleepers are heavier because of an increase in fat or an increase in lean muscle—a distinction which makes a significant difference for health repercussions.

Sleep and Obesity: An Objective Study

In response to the limitations of subjective studies on sleep and obesity, two groups of adults aged 65+ (one of men and one of women) took part in an objective study that also looked at sleep duration and weight. Rather than relying on self-reported data, participants’ sleep patterns were assessed through the use of wrist actigraphy, which determines if a person is asleep or awake by measuring wrist movement.

This objective measurement of sleep duration confirmed the results of the subjective study, finding that reduced sleep was associated with an increased Body Mass Index (BMI) among both men and women. When compared with those getting 7-8 hours of sleep per night, average BMI of those who slept less than 5 hours was higher by 2.5 units in men and by 1.8 units in women. Moreover, men getting 5 or fewer hours of sleep were 3.7 times more likely to be obese, while women were 2.3 time more likely.

Increased weight doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in fat and its related health problems—more muscle also means more weight, but is generally associated with improved health. The objective study looked at this question and found that the increase in weight associated with reduced sleep was a result of increased fat rather than muscle. Overall percent body fat in those sleeping less than 5 hours was 1.7% greater than those getting 7-8 hours, and percent body fat in the trunk 1.9% greater.

Why Could Reduced Sleep Make You Fat?

Research has clearly shown that reduced sleep is associated with greater weight, but why does reduced sleep make a person fat?

One strong hypothesis is that less sleep leads to increased or altered food intake. Animals studies have found that sleep deprivation leads to elevated levels of hunger [5], with particular increases for high-fat and high-carbohydrate foods. This increased hunger with sleep deprivation may be a result of the corresponding change in hormones that regulate hunger, with gherlin levels found to increase and leptin levels to decrease.

Alternatively, rather than a change in feelings of hunger, increased food intake could be the result of increased eating even in the absence of hunger. Reduced impulse control and trouble delaying gratification are known consequences of sleep deprivation.

It’s also possible that simply being awake more often will lead to increased eating when food is readily available, especially if time awake is spent in sedentary activities that encourage snacking.

As S.R. Patel mentions in his 2009 review paper titled “Reduced sleep as an obesity risk factor”, there are several other possibilities that have been proposed. One is that the feelings of fatigue that are associated with sleep deprivation may result in a disinclination to exercise. Another is that reduced sleep results in a reduction in involuntary activities such as fidgeting, which are known to have effects on weight regulation [6].

Finally, acute sleep deprivation has been found to result in a drop in core body temperature, meaning your body needs to spend less energy in order to maintain thermoregulation with the surrounding air. This change in thermogenesis (the process of heat production) may encourage the storing of fat, although a recent study found no effect of sleep deprivation on resting metabolic rate.

Conclusions

Current evidence clearly shows that short sleep is associated with obesity, but a causal relationship remains unclear. Does a reduction in sleep lead to weight gain, or is there some other reason for the association? We don’t yet know for sure. But as modern society sets aside less and less time for sleep and becomes increasingly prone to obesity, it is a possibility that must be considered.

With so few effective ways to prevent and treat obesity, wouldn’t it be wonderful if simply sleeping a bit more could keep us both thinner and healthier?

References

1. Patel, S.R. Short sleep and obesity. International Association for the Study of Obesity. Obesity Reviews 10 (Suppl. 2), 61–68.

2. Terman L, Hocking A. The sleep of school children, its distribution according to age, and its relationship to physical and mental efficiency. J Educ Psychol 1913; 4: 269–282.

3. Tune GS. Sleep and wakefulness in normal human adults. Br Med J 1968; 2: 269–271.

4. Patel SR, Malhotra A, White DP, Gottlieb DJ, Hu FB. Association between reduced sleep and weight gain in women. Am J Epidemiol 2006; 164: 947–954.

5. Spiegel K, Tasali E, Penev P, Van Cauter E. Sleep curtailment in healthy young men is associated with decreased leptin levels, elevated ghrelin levels, and increased hunger and appetite. Ann Intern Med 2004; 141: 846–850.

6. Levine JA, Eberhardt NL, Jensen MD. Role of nonexercise activity thermogenesis in resistance to fat gain in humans. Science 1999; 283: 212–214.
Matthew Constantin

Tags: BMI, sleep

First Strawberries

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has finally come. The first strawberries of the season have arrived! And what a day for them to appear.

Today is easily the most beautiful we’ve had so far this year in SF. Of course this means my pictures didn’t turn out as well, since there was too much light. But it also meant I made my first salad of 2010!

Salad FTW!

Warm sunshine always inspires me to make salad, but the appearance of cucumbers, sugar snap peas and these adorable bolero carrots helped too.

Bolero Carrots

Mediterranean Cucumbers

Beyond these new additions, the selection this week at the farmers market wasn’t too different from last week. I’m going take this opportunity to cut this post a bit short and go enjoy the beautiful day. I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Spring Tomatoes

Cardoon

Today’s purchases:

• Bloomsdale spinach (Star Route Farms)
• Sugar snap peas (Chue’s Farm)
• Broccolini (Chue’s Farm)
• Bolero carrots (Dirty Girl Produce)
• Mediterranean cucumbers (McGinnis Ranch)
• Swiss chard (Iacopi Farm)
• Asparagus (Zuckerman’s Farm)
• Purple kale (Capay Organics)
• Eggs (Marin Sun Farms)
• Beef hot dogs (Prather Ranch)

Are there strawberries at your market yet?

Tags: cardoons, carrots, cucumbers, Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, San Francisco, strawberries, tomatoes

For The Love of Food

Welcome to Friday’s For The Love of Food, Summer Tomato’s weekly link roundup.

I was so focused on finding new material to share with you that I nearly forgot that yesterday was the 1 year birthday of Summer Tomato! Thanks to all of you who have supported me and this blog over the past 12 months. I can’t tell you how much your kind and thoughtful emails and comments mean to me. I feel blessed everyday to have such an amazing community of people who love life, food and health as much as I do, and I look forward to much more to come. Cheers!

I also want to remind you that Summer Tomato readers can still get 20% off all online purchases at Samovar Tea Lounge until March 31. Samovar has amazing teas and tea accessories. I definitely recommend browsing their shop if you’re a tea fan.

Use the code: summertea at checkout to apply the discount.

There was some interesting news this week (and some BS called) on both saturated fat and high-fructose corn syrup, the foods Americans love to hate. The science is complicated, so be sure to read the stories carefully. Also don’t miss the video of Kevin Rose and Tim Ferriss causing trouble down at my beloved San Francisco Ferry Building.

I read many more wonderful articles than I post here each week. If you’d like to see more or just don’t want to wait until Friday, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@summertomato) or the Summer Tomato Facebook fan page. For complete reading lists join me on the social bookmarking sites StumbleUpon and Delicious. I’m very active on all these sites and would love to connect with you there. (Note: If you want a follow back on Twitter introduce yourself with an @ message).

Links of the week

• Is saturated fat back on the hook? <<Saturated fat is a complicated issue, and in my opinion we do not have all the answers yet. It certainly doesn’t seem as bad as we were led to believe, but it doesn’t seem exactly harmless either. I’ve read a few different analyses, but this one is my favorite. (Nutrition Data)
• 12 things you should never put in your mouth [slideshow] <<I can think of more than 12 things for sure, but this is a fun slideshow. (Grist)
• Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain <<BS of the week. This study made a lot of splash, but the evidence isn’t actually very strong. Sugar isn’t healthy, neither is HFCS. I don’t see how this study changes anything. (News at Princeton; Food Politics)
• McDonald’s Happy Meals Evidently Invincible <<Food that doesn’t rot? Are you kidding me? If bacteria and fungus won’t eat it, maybe the rest of us should reconsider as well. (TreeHugger)
• The Claim: Eat Six Small Meals a Day Instead of Three Big Ones <<I’ve never been a fan of the mini-meals, they take the ceremony (and some of the joy) out of sitting down with friends and loved ones to break bread. Turns out there isn’t much science behind the idea of spacing out eating anyway. (New York Times)
• A ‘dude’ explains why salad is ‘man food’ <<Salads may get a bad wrap from some of the guys but let’s be honest, being in great shape is pretty manly. All girls know that the hottest guys eat salads. (CNN)
• Dear Blogger: Do You Hate Your Customer? <<I was touched by this post about fitness bloggers over at Problogger. The author talks about how fitness blogs are often too condescending and cruel to their readers. I try to build a community here around ending deprivation and raising quality of life; I think food should be about happiness and fulfillment. But I’d love to know your thoughts on the subject and how you feel about the vibe here at Summer Tomato. Birthdays are a good time to reflect
• Last Supper helpings have grown <<Turns out artists have been trying to feed Jesus and his disciples more and more food for the past 1,000 years. Share the love I guess. WTF? (Chicago Tribune)
• Spinach and Chickpeas <<I tried a version of this recipe (minus the bread), and it was delicious. This is a great place to use some of your leftover smoked paprika! (Smitten Kitchen)
• The Random Show – Episode 9/10 <<Summer Tomato got some love this week from Kevin Rose (Digg) and Tim Ferriss (Four Hour Work Week) in their 9th or 10th (who’s counting?) episode of The Random Show. Though most of the video is about tech, books and travel, this time there was talk of food as well (waaay at the end ~23:00). The video was shot at my favorite place on earth, the San Francisco Ferry Building, and our Farmers Market Updates got a shout out. Thanks guys

What made your meals happy this week?

Tags: B.S. of the week, high fructose corn syrup, Kevin Rose, McDonald's, salad, Samovar Tea Lounge, saturated fat, Tim Ferriss

Photo by Uwe Hermann

Refined sugars and high-fructose corn syrup are considered by many experts to be the biggest contributors to obesity and poor health in Western civilization.

In her book What To Eat, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at NYU and blogger at Food Politics suggests that any food that contains more than 15 grams of sugar per serving is closer to dessert than anything else. Though this number is arbitrary, it is a good benchmark for evaluating food products.

Obviously sugar content is not the only factor in a food’s nutritional value (and not all of these have added sugar), but it can be illuminating to see the relative amounts in the foods we consume.

Just for fun I looked up the sugar content of a few common foods and menu items. I hope you’re as horrified as I am.

Listed values are as close to a normal serving as I could approximate. Units are listed as grams of sugar.

Sugar Content of Common Food Products

1. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut …………………………………………………10 g

2. Luna Bar berry almond ……………………………………………………………………………11 g

3. Froot Loops breakfast cereal 3/4 cup ……………………………………………………12 g

4. Ben & Jerry’s vanilla ice cream ………………………………………………………………..16 g

5. Starbucks caffè latte grande 16 oz ………………………………………………………..17 g

6. Godiva 2 truffles ……………………………………………………………………………………….17 g

7. Subway 6″ sweet onion teriyaki chicken sandwich ……………………………….17 g

8. Ms. Field’s chocolate chip cookie …………………………………………………………….19 g

9. Tropicana 100% orange juice 8 oz …………………………………………………………25 g

10. Yoplait original yogurt ……………………………………………………………………………27 g

11. Craisins dried cranberries 1/3 cup ……………………………………………………….29 g

12. Vitamin Water 20 oz bottle ………………………………………………………………….33 g

13. Oscar Mayer Lunchables crackers, turkey & American cheese ………….36 g

14. Coca-Cola Classic 12 oz can …………………………………………………………………39 g

15. Sprinkles Cupcake red velvet ……………………………………………………………….45 g

16. California Pizza Kitchen Thai chicken salad ………………………………………….45 g

17. Jamba Juice blackberry bliss 16 oz ……………………………………………………….49 g

18. Odwalla SuperFood 450 ml bottle ………………………………………………………..50 g

19. Starbucks caffe vanilla frappuccino grande 16 oz ………………………………58 g

Take home messages:

• Foods we recognize as dessert (e.g. doughnuts, ice cream, cookies) often have far less sugar than things we consider “healthy” (e.g. juice, yogurt, dried fruit).
• Froot Loops aren’t necessarily better than doughnuts.
• Energy bars are glorified candy.
• Dessert is sometimes hidden in things like sandwiches.
• Some foods marketed to children aren’t much better than soda.
• A salad can have as much sugar as one of the biggest cupcakes I’ve ever seen.
• “Natural” foods can have lots of sugar.
• The worst offenders are drinkable.
• Starbucks is why you’re fat.

How much sugar is in your favorite foods?

Tags: high fructose corn syrup, Marion Nestle, processed foods, sugar