1. We’re loving your blog, which encourages readers to ask diet and fitness questions and get straight information, all while dispelling myths. How many diet and fitness myths are floating around out there, and how does one know what is true and what isn’t?
There are thousands of diet and fitness myths and more either rehashed or invented every day. It is impossible to keep up with all of them so the best thing is to learn how to spot them. First and foremost, the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to eat only what you need and to exercise. Even Hippocrates knew that and he lived 2500 years ago! If it sounds too good to be true, it is! 
My book, Diet Myths Busted; Food Facts not Nutrition Fiction teaches the reader to use logic, common sense and research to wade through all the hype and misinformation the media puts out. One of the most common threads throughout many myths is that you can consume a food or ingest a drink and lose weight, not gain weight. However, the obesity crises exist because we do consume food! The human body is designed to consume food to refuel and maintain itself. To consume a food and lose calories is counterproductive to our entire biological makeup! However, if you do consume a food that promises weight loss, the company that came up with the idea makes a hefty profit. For more information on myths about nutrition and fitness, visit my website at www.dietfitnessdiva.com
2. We’re starting a New Year, which is the undisputed most popular time for people to resolve to better their health. What is the most important step for beginning a wellness program and how does one go about implementing it?
The first and most important step is to define a reasonable goal – for example “lose 10 pounds.” You must articulate a goal. Implementing it requires some kind of a plan – maybe a diet modification, maybe a new exercise routine or maybe both. It’s wise to write your goal and plan down. Put it up somewhere – like your refrigerator! Finally, what might not be evident is the importance of giving it time, being consistent and staying with it!
Understand this must be a lifestyle change forever and it must take prio
rity. Too many times we change our eating and exercise habits to meet a goal and once that goal is met, we go back to the habits that put us at risk in the first place. Unfortunately, many of us are quite prepared to make a lifestyle change if we are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness but we are hard pressed to change to adopt a healthy lifestyle. If we are willing to accommodate the necessary lifestyle changes of an illness, we should be willing to accommodate the lifestyle changes to avoid them.
To make such changes, start slow and progress steadily. As pre-packaged, refined foods are used up in the house, replace them with whole, fresh foods. Slowly taper off take out foods and instead involve the family or significant other in preparing meals together. Shift away from using dense, non-nutritious foods as rewards and reward yourself or others with special activities like skiing, skating or walking through the park or zoo. Invest in your health by hiring a personal trainer. People often get frustrated because it can be hard to reach a goal, but wellness is worth the time that it takes. You can’t give up. The best gift we can give ourselves and our families is a healthy you!
3. Is there really such thing as a “superfood” or “power ingredient?” Please elaborate.
There are a number of superfoods but let’s first dispel a myth – there is no food that makes you lose weight! To lose weight, you need to eat a little less and move a little more. Superfoods refer to foods that are full of nutrients and vitamins and are consumed in their whole, unprocessed, natural state. Now as far as superfoods, probably one of the better foods on the planet is the egg. It contains almost a perfect balance of protein, carbohydrate and fat. The nutrients in an egg are often the “gold standard” by which other foods are measured.
Another superfood is the blueberry – it is the king of berry’s and one of the best anti-oxidants in existence. One more superfood that is often overlooked is milk. It is far better than juice or soda pop, generally less expensive and contains a nearly perfect balance of protein, fat and carbohydrate. While such foods are a great source of nutrition, they are not cures for ailments or diseases. This is where the facts and myths separate.
While eating whole, unprocessed foods will supply a person with great nutrition, they will not cure you of a chronic condition. On the other hand, there are foods that are considered “junk foods.” These are perfectly good foods that have been altered and manipulated from their whole, natural state to deliver taste, texture and calories but not nutrition. Most foods that fall into these categories are processed, refined and often referred to as fast food. These foods will exacerbate chronic conditions. When these are the choices, no wonder whole, natural foods appear “super!”
4. What are the most important things people should be doing to head off heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic ailments?
Number one is if you smoke, quit. Smoking absolutely positively has to go. The evidence of damage caused by smoking is overwhelming. Smoking has been linked to each one of these ailments and not smoking is the most preventative measure we can take. Number two is if you have a weight problem or if you are moving in that direction, correct it now by re-evaluating your diet and engaging in more activity. Obesity is a driver of heart disease, diabetes and many other ailments. Number three in my view, is if you consume a lot of sugary beverages, stop. Change to water, unsweetened tea, coffee or milk.
5. What are the absolute must-have products or foods that someone undertaking a healthy lifestyle makeover should have on ha
nd?
Unfortunately most of us have the opposite problem – we need to get rid of about half the foods we have on hand. There probably is no easy answer to that question but I would say this – get more protein in your diet especially in the morning for breakfast. Most of us do not get sufficient protein and that makes us hungry sooner. Investigate whey powder – I wouldn’t be without it. Eat eggs, drink milk. Add blueberries and other berries in to your diet. Eat wild salmon once in a while – don’t eat the farm raised stuff.
Go for foods that have very few ingredients – maybe one ingredient! Such foods are ready to eat in their whole, unprocessed state such as fruits and vegetables, lean meats, chicken, fish, yogurt, eggs, whole grain breads, cereals and pastas. If you are really doing a makeover of your food and similar products, make sure your great-grandmother would recognize what you are eating and what products you have on hand. Remember this rule, if it is food that can rot, eat it. If it won’t rot, leave it. In other words, if a food will rot it will break down in our bodies and if it won’t rot, like margarine, or artificial sweeteners, it won’t break down in our bodies. So where does it go?
6. What is the most effective type of exercise, overall?
The one that you will do consistently! Seriously – there isn’t just one. With exercise we really have to learn to do something we like so we can maintain it. Exercise works over time – not all at once. It’s sort of like having a baby in that sense – no matter what you do, it’s probably going to take at least nine months! We need to move more – a lot more.
One example of a mistake many of us make is to do sit ups to lose belly fat. Sit ups will give you strong abdominal muscles but won’t do anything about the belly fat that’s covering them up. For that, we need to do cardio like running or biking. Also you cannot spot reduce which means weight has to come off all over and that is a gradual and slow process! If a person has never exercised before, it would be helpful to enlist the guidance of a personal trainer to help set up a program based on goals both you and the trainer have discussed. It gets better, it gets easier, and it feels great to be healthy!
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