FDA 3 Diet Drugs 0 or Three Strikes and You Are Out!

The FDA has been busy the last three weeks.  It has recalled one diet pill and turned down approval requests for two others.  All three had scary side effects that made the benefits of taking them questionable. 

 FDA Rejects Arena’s Weight Loss Pill, Citing Tumors in Rats http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69M26620101023

Abbott Labs Recalls Meridia from Market on Risk of Cardiovascular Disease http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/299401

FDA Rejects Qnexa http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/Non-food/Drug/fda_rejects_weight_loss_drug_qnexa_3010100150.html

Hmmm, would I trade cancer for weight loss?  Well, once I am on chemotherapy for the tumors I got from a diet pill, I guess I would lose weight!

I had a client a couple years ago whose doctor put her on Meridia.  She complained almost immediately of racing heart symptoms.  No wonder that one got pulled for risk of heart attacks.

Decades ago, my mother went to the doctor for some diet pills.  Those were the days of amphetamines.  She lost a little weight, mostly because she was vacuuming the house at 500 miles per hour.  In the end, she didn't like that feeling of racing through her errands and chores.  No wonder it was called speed.

These recalls and denials are a reminder that there is no easy answer to weight loss.  There is no magic pill.  Even Alli has some creepy side effects.  The best, healthiest and safest way to lose weight is to lower your calorie consumption and raise your exercise level.  Eating healthier foods--less processed food--helps a lot, also.

The last article I found this week compares the cost per pound of different diet methods, from Jenny Craig to Lap bands to the plain old fashioned diet.  Turns out the plain vanilla diet SAVES you month per pound!  Check out that story here.

Cost Per Pound Comparisons of Alternative Weight Loss Methods http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/jenny-craig-lap-band-price-pound-lose-weight/story?id=11939138&page=1

What Does it Take to Commit to Permanent Change?

Article first published as Wake Up Calls: What Does it Take to Commit To Permanent Change on Technorati.

A friend confided to me years ago he was pretty lax about his dental care. Until the day his dentist told him he had advanced gum disease, and he would begin to lose his teeth if he didn’t make a change.  From that moment forward he began brushing, flossing and rinsing.  He would do whatever it took to save his teeth.

Last Week Former President Bill Clinton explained to Wolf Blitzer about the reasons behind his new, nearly vegan diet:

“But I did it for a different reason. I mean, I wanted to lose a little weight but I didn’t ever dream this would happen. I did it because after I had this stent put in, I realized that even though it happens quite often that after you have bypasses, you lose the veins, because they’re thinner and weaker than arteries. The truth is that it clogged up, which means that the cholesterol was still causing build up in my vein that was part of my bypass. Thank God I could take the stents.

I didn’t want it to happen again. So I did all this research and I saw that 82 percent of the people, since 1986, who have gone on a plant-based, no dairy, no meat of any kind. No chicken, turkey. I eat very little fish. Once in a while I’ll have a little fish. Not often. If you can do it, 82 percent of people who have done that have begun to heal themselves. Their arterial blockage cleans up. The calcium deposit around their heart breaks up.”

Later in the interview, Clinton expressed his hope that with his new healthier regime, he would be around for his family and someday, for his grandkids.

Short term goals like losing weight to fit into a wedding dress can result in the five or ten pounds of weight loss you need, but what happens on the all inclusive honeymoon? 

Being on TV vying for a quarter million dollars and then follow-up TV exposure seems to work for those on the Biggest Loser and other weight loss shows, but how many people in the public eye fall back into bad habits and gain all the weight back, like Kirstie Alley? 

Does it take the fear of death or threat of severe illness to generate permanent change? 

If you are getting ready to go on your next diet, try to pick powerful reasons for losing the weight. Reasons that are going to mean more to you than momentary life stresses that drive snacking or reaching for processed convenience food when you are in a hurry. 

Put the list on the refrigerator, on the pantry door, on your desk at work, in your car, on your bathroom mirror.  Make certain you can see that list of reasons every time you are getting ready to make a food decision, and then remember why you are on a diet.

Healthy Food--Perceived as Negative Calories

Time recently wrote an article on a study done at Northwestern University on people’s perceptions of food, and the belief in “negative calories.”  In the study, 934 participants in an on line study were asked to estimate the calories in images of meals.  Turns out that when they saw a cheeseburger and fries, they gave it one estimate, but when they saw the same meal with a salad, they gave that a lower estimate, thinking that the healthy food lowered the total calorie content.

The study concluded that people overeat because they underestimate the calories of a meal with some healthy food in it.  What was more interesting in the study was that participants who self-identified as dieters underestimated the calorie count by a greater margin than the non-dieters—increasing their negative calorie count.  This study indicates that until people really know how many calories they are eating, they will continue to struggle with overeating.  Yet another friendly reminder about why conscious eating and food logging matters for weight loss success.

Here is the link to the Time article http://healthland.time.com/2010/09/21/why-americans-are-fat-we-literally-see-more-food-as-less/

And here is the link to the study summary http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/News_Articles/2010/the-dieters-paradox.aspx

How Far We Are from a Healthy Lifestyle...

I read an article today that shocked me.  It cited a 2005 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, that examined the top five healthy behaviors--not smoking, exercise, healthy diet, managing stress and preventative health care like mammograms and colonoscopies.  The study indicated that of the 153,000 people surveyed in 2000, only 2-4% of Americans do all of these things!

With the rising cost of health care--Obamacare or not--I guess I figured more people were living like me, trying to do everything to stay healthy and out of the doctor's office.  I guess that study only justifies why I should continue to write this blog and maintain this website!

Please comment on which of the five healthy behaviors you are doing, and which you are not.