Picky eaters can drive parents crazy – kids who demand the same foods day after day, or turn up their noses at foods they’ve never even tried.  But most grow out of it. Every once in a while, though, I’ll run across a grown adult who is as picky as a toddler.  Unlike the rest of us – who have a pretty short list of foods we’d rather not eat – these extremely picky adults have a very different short list, one made up of just a few foods they’re actually willing to eat.  While it’s tempting to just dismiss this – on the assumption that these folks are just choosing to be stubborn and rigid – research is suggesting that there may be other forces at work. Read more »

A few weeks ago, the US Coast Guard announced a major downsizing.  Not in their staff, but in the number of passengers that will be allowed to travel on commercial boats.  The reason?  The average passenger weight is being bumped up by 25 pounds – which will determine, and now lessen, the number of people a boat can safely hold. It’s yet another nod to the staggering statistic that two-thirds of adults in this country are overweight or obese. Read more »

As professional cyclists are racing down the coast in the Tour of California this week, I wanted to share these ideas from Dr. John Heiss of Herbalife on how to ‘Eat to Compete – 5 Reasons Why Endurance Athletes Need Fuel 24/7.’

1.  Athletes need to fuel up in the morning, since their stored fuel reserves will have dropped during an overnight fast.  Training and racing take a toll on the body, and starting the day with a healthy meal balanced with carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals provides a solid nutritional foundation for performance.  

2.  Hydration is an essential need all people share.  Because hydration directly impacts athletic performance, it is even more important for athletes to keep fluid levels topped off – especially during an event as demanding as a multi-day tour when cyclists can lose multiple liters of fluid in a single stage. Hydration is essential, as are electrolytes – important body salts which support proper muscle function and help regulate body temperature.   It’s important to hydrate during the event, but also important to sip fluid throughout the day to fully rehydrate before the next stage.  Sports drinks provide not only necessary fluid, but also electrolytes that have been lost through perspiration.  Sports drinks contribute carbohydrates, too, to help fuel working muscles during the event.

3.  Carbohydrates are the primary fuel during exercise and they’re essential to keep the body running.  In an endurance race, calories are king and getting enough is essential for performance.  Making sure to get plenty of carbohydrates both before and during the race is key, and proper nutrition on the bike also helps shorten recovery time, which is very important in a multi-day event.  In addition to carbohydrates, a small amount of protein during exercise can help speed recovery.  

4.  After a race, the body needs the right ratios of carbohydrates and protein to begin recovering.  Recovery is two-fold, and requires carbohydrate for replacing glycogen stores as well as protein for rebuilding damaged muscle.    

5.  Supplementation in a race is essential, as the nutritional needs of cyclists are so extreme that they can’t be met with food alone.  But that being said, it is important to keep in mind that supplementation is just that – a supplement to a regular healthy diet.  Every athlete should get the majority of their calories and nutrients from whole foods, primarily healthy sources of healthy carbohydrates – whole grains, fruits and vegetables – and protein from lean meats, poultry, fish, low fat dairy products and plant sources such as soy.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD. Susan is a paid consultant for Herbalife.

Years ago when I was in private practice, I had the pleasure – and the challenge – of working with quite a few well-known professional chefs.  It was great to get to know them, and to listen to them speak so passionately about food.  But as you might expect, many of them struggled with their weight.  Not only do chefs love good food – but they’re around it all day long and they spend a good part of their day tasting and sampling. 

So how do they manage to control their weight?  I was recently interviewed by Web MD for my take on some of the strategies professional chefs use to keep their weight in check. Click here to read the article.

Written by Susan Bowerman, MS, RD, CSSD. Susan is a paid consultant for Herbalife.

Every time I have a new client scheduled to see me for weight loss, I have a pretty good idea of how our first conversation will go.  The first thing they usually want to know is how much I think they should weigh.  The answer is usually less than straightforward (see my post of October 7) and that question is inevitably followed up by a similar, and equally vexing query:  “how long will it take?”.  I’ve had this same conversation countless times over the years, and my answer is always the same – “it depends”. Read more »

Most of us “baby boomers” like to think we’re younger than we are.  It’s something we really notice when we flip through old family photo albums and notice how much older our parents or grandparents looked in their 50’s than many of us do now.  Even so, our bodies begin their slow decline by the time we reach our 30’s – with no system left untouched.  But advances in medicine and science mean that we’re living healthier lives than our parents did, and it’s expected that we’ll work longer and live longer than they did, too. Read more »