http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php Copyright 2008, Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD en-US SPHPBLOG 0.4.8 http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081117-170440
I was talking with a friend about the amazing amount of weight contestants on the reality weight-loss shows lose. “How can they be so successful when everyone else is struggling to hard to stay on a diet?” I asked. She laughed and told me not to be so naïve. “You would lose weight also if you were essentially locked in a facility, all your meals were monitored and you were forced to exercise for hours every day.”

“Is there any follow-up?” I wondered. “Do these people keep their weight off or are they like Kirstie Alley after Jenny Craig dropped her contract with them?” I had seen a picture of the formerly thinner spokesperson for the national diet franchise in the National Enquirer as I was in the checkout line in the supermarket. Alley had regained a lot of weight.

“Once the diet enforcer is gone,” my friend replied, “people usually return to their former weight. But by that time, no one is paying attention to them; the program is dealing with new people.”

It is sad and true that keeping weight off, regardless of how it is lost, is extremely difficult. Once the diet books are pushed aside, the food scale and treadmill covered with dust, and the need to account for weekly weight has stopped, the pounds start coming back. My weight-loss practice is filled with clients who have been on every program available, from liquid diets to spas to surgery. They gained back their weight and often weigh more than they did before their previous weight-loss attempts. One client, let’s call her Sally, was able to lose about 75 pounds while attending meetings of Overeaters Anonymous.

“I had to call my sponsor daily with my meal plan and if I deviated, even substituting string beans for carrots, I had to call her again. The weight just slid off and I loved being supported and monitored by my sponsor. But then I went through a difficult time when my mother was ill and I stopped following the diet. I was ashamed of what I was eating so of course I stopped calling my sponsor. And afterwards, when I had gained back all my weight, I just couldn’t admit that I had failed.” When I asked her whether her sponsor would have understood her need to eat more freely during the time of her mother’s illness, she told me that she doubted it. “It was OA’s way or the highway,” she said. “They want you to be on their plan for life, no excuses. And they are probably right. Look what happened to me when I stopped following it.”

Sally’s predicament was typical of people who rely on an enforcer to keep them on a diet and prevent them from gaining back their weight. However, there are two problems with relying on a diet enforcer:
1) There is no instruction on how to lose weight or maintain on your own. Having a diet enforcer is like learning to drive and then after you get your license, still having a driving instructor sit next to you all the time. At some point you have to be able to drive on your own or make food and exercise choices on your own.
2) There is rarely an attempt to understand what the triggers are that cause you to overeat.
Sally, for example, always turned to food when she was anxious and overwhelmed. When her mother became ill, she did it again. If her sponsor knew this about Sally, perhaps she could have helped her work out a food plan and exercise program to decrease her stress and simply maintain her weight loss.

It would be wonderful if, when you meet your weight-loss goal, something clicked in your brain and you never found yourself overeating again. But then again, if wagons had wings, they could fly. Keeping weight off and maintaining a consistent exercise regimen is hard; there are usually as many reasons for not doing so as mosquitoes on a humid summer night. The time to figure out how to deal with overeating triggers is while you are actually on a diet. It is like having that driving instructor next to you telling you what to do if the car skids on ice. If you make an eating mistake, it is a good time to discuss why, what caused you to go off the diet or eat too much or make poor food choices. There is a chapter in our book, The Serotonin Power Diet, called “Now What Do I Do?” which addresses what to do when life gets in the way of dieting. We designed it specifically to help our readers deal with situations in which following a diet may be impossible.

So if you are looking for personal help with weight loss, look for a diet enabler. This person understands that you are not a dieting robot, that your food choices may be driven by emotional, social, family or economic stresses, and who can work with you to balance your need to lose weight with the demands of your lif
]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081117-170440 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:04:40 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081117-070045
If gym attendance is falling off, and sales of sugar, eggs and cream are going up, the holidays must be upon us. Is there a witch of weight gain who decreed many years ago that five or more pounds would be attached to our bodies as we eat our way from Halloween to New Year’s Day?

The preoccupation with holiday food seems to begin as soon as Labor Day sales end and store aisles fill with orange and black bags of candy. They no sooner go on sale (50% off all Halloween candy) than chocolate turkeys, cans of sweet potatoes in syrup and bags of miniature marshmallows appear in the supermarkets. And in these days of retailing Christmas as early as possible, chocolate Santas and Christmas cookie dough are popping into sight.

We take overeating for granted around this time of year. “What would the holidays be without special treats?” asked a weight-loss client of mine when she announced that she was going to stop dieting from Thanksgiving to New Years. “I gain weight every year and why should this year be different?”

The realistic answer would be that she would be more likely to start a healthier new year if she was able to avoid the many high-fat, high-sugar foods and creamy alcoholic beverages that were part of her holiday eating plan. But if reality stopped people from overeating, we would all be thinner.

There are probably several reasons why holidays are associated with rich, elaborate foods. Historically, special foods have always been prepared for holiday meals. They often have religious significance (Easter and Passover), cultural and historical references (turkey, cranberries and pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving,) and family tradition (Aunt Sally’s sweet potato casserole). Also, in the past, many foods were simply too expensive or hard to obtain to be eaten all year round. Oranges or bananas were exotic foods that would be considered gifts at Christmas time. People hoarded their sugar, egg and butter rations during World War II for celebration-based baked goods and often beef was eaten only two or three times a year at holidays. Of course, these days anything we prepare and eat during the holidays we can get all year long. So why do we make and eat so much food during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

Perhaps it is because the darkness of late fall and early winter makes us feel depressed, tired, apathetic, sleepy and hungry for sweet foods. No one escapes early sunsets and unless you live in the warmer latitudes icy winds, snow or sleet often accompany the darkness of mid-to-late afternoon. Eating and drinking becomes a way of getting through this season of darkness and the presence of holiday celebrations gives us the excuse to do it to excess.

The stress of holiday preparations just adds to the natural decline in our mood at this time of year. We take on additional jobs, namely shopping for gifts, decorating the house, preparing food for guests as well as the family, and dealing with returning college students and assorted relatives. This year the workload is compounded by the financial uncertainty that all of us are facing: What will 2009 bring?

Eating is certainly comforting, especially when the foods such as carbohydrates increase the level of the comfort chemical, serotonin. But the scale will be far less comforting come January 2 if we eat them in quantities acceptable only if we are going into hibernation.

So ask yourself: Can I prepare foods that will be festive, improve the moods of all who eat them and keep us from gaining weight? The answer is yes. Look on the web for lighter, less caloric versions of traditional foods. Some of the recipes include reviews by people who have already tried them out. And if the review are good, try them out yourself.
Many of us expect guests to drop over during the holidays and we put out bowls of nuts, chocolate candy, and Christmas cookies. Put out bowls of dried fruit instead such as cranberries, apricots , figs and dates. They are sweet but contain no fat and are very satisfying.p in. Edamame—soybeans either in the pod or shelled—pretzels and tiny Japanese rice snacks are low in fat and crunchy enough to satisfy any snacker. Nuts are a healthy snack, especially walnuts because they are high in omega-3 fatty acids but it is very hard to limit snacking on nuts to only a small handful. And since they contain 50% fat, eating nuts can run up the calorie count very quickly.
Use fresh herbs, lemon juice or lime juice, and spices instead of butter to flavor potatoes, rice and vegetables. Make sure your guests have water to drink as well as wine so they can satisfy their thirst with something non-alcoholic. Remember that smaller portions are “in” these days as we try to economize our food costs.

Succulent pineapple , ripe mango slices and juice pears are treats in the winter months and make a low calorie addition to the dessert tray. If you serve the pastry along with the fruit, then you can put a small piece of the cake or pie on the plate and fill in the rest of the space with the fruit
And finally, good conversation, good listening, and good sharing will make memories that will last much longer than the taste of whatever you serve on the holidays.

]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081117-070045 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:00:45 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081111-065100 I once traveled to Europe with someone who took a fast-acting sleeping pill right before dinner was served. He ate most of the meal but was not able to finish dessert before the pill started to take effect. The flight attendant removed the tray right before his head sunk into the chocolate mousse. The next morning's coffee and a light breakfast were served before landing. My seat companion said to me, ”I am really hungry. I guess it is because I did not eat dinner last night.” When I assured him that he certainly did eat dinner, he said, “I have no memory of eating, I am sure I fell asleep before it was served.” Vowing to take a picture of his eating on future airplane flights occasions, I nevertheless gave up convincing him that he had consumed a rather large meal, albeit without dessert. But his absolute conviction that he had not eaten made me wonder how many of us are unaware of how much food we consume.

This year, election eve was spent in a friend’s home with several couples. The hostess had munchies on every available surface in her den and a well-stocked drinks cart was nearby. Afterwards I wished I had been able to film the eating of the guests. As people’s anxiety or excitement grew, their munching accelerated. The woman sitting next to me was consuming nuts so fast her hand-to-mouth movement became a blur. In a quiet moment when we were all waiting for the results after a certain number of polling places had closed, the crunch, crunch sounds from someone attacking the potato chip bowl were clearly heard. One man took a cracker and started piling three spreads on top of it without paying attention since his gaze was on the TV set. The cracker was so loaded with spread that it was in danger of hitting the sofa before it made it into his mouth. And when the results were in, everyone went to the dining room to celebrate with ice cream and brownies.

I suspect that if any guest had been asked the next day to recall what he or she had eaten, the answer would have been either “nothing “ or “I don’t remember.”

If only the calories we consume unknowingly wouldn’t count. Alas, it doesn’t work that way. They count and because we are oblivious to the fact that we have consumed them, we don’t compensate by eating smaller amounts at meals and at other snacks times. Our lack of awareness of what, and how much, we are eating is no doubt a major reason we consume more calories than we intended to eat. I am sure that if any of those guests had been asked earlier in the day whether they intended to consume at least 500 extra calories that night, they would have been horrified and denied any thought of doing so. And yet they did.

So how do we make ourselves aware of what we are eating? Writing it down is hopeless. After a few days, almost everyone forgets to write down everything, in large part because they were either unaware of what and how much they were eating or it was too much trouble to do so. Keeping records on your cell phone or computer also work for only short periods of time for the same reason. Some weight-loss programs use enforcers who watch over the client to make sure that every morsel of food consumed is on the diet plan and do not allow any other food to be consumed. (Reality weight loss shows do this, too.)

Maybe some day soon there will be some sort of wireless connection between our mouth and a monitoring device so when we began to chew, we would feel a vibration. This could work like a bark collar, which emits a squeal when a dog begins to bark. As we heard the squeal or felt a vibration, we would stop chewing and notice what we were eating. Then we would have a chance to think about whether we wanted to continue. If dogs can stop barking it might work to make us stop chewing.

But a much better idea is to train ourselves to watch what we eat. We are taught to cross the street on a green light, to charge our cell phones, and to send Mother’s Day cards. Training ourselves to stop for a microsecond before putting food in our mouths is not that difficult. It just takes practice. For example, you are waiting to have your hair cut. The shop offers a plate of doughnut holes next to the coffee machine. The easiest thing in the world is to pop one into your mouth as you fill your cup with coffee. But ask yourself, “Am I hungry? “ or “Is this the healthiest food I can eat?” or “Will I survive my haircut without the doughnut hole?” of “ Can I walk away from this food?”

Doing this sort of exercise over and over again will eventually help you avoid mindless eating. And ultimately it will become as much of a reflex as charging your cell phone or iPod. And when that happens, you are well on your way to controlling your weight.

]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081111-065100 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:51:00 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081106-160835
There is something wrong with this picture. I am pushing the pedals on the elliptical trainer, which has me climbing a hill without end. As I sweat my way through the workout, I distract myself by looking at a program on the Food Network shown on the overhead TV screen. I watch as a skinny female chef is putting an enormous chunk of butter into a pot of cooking carrots. While that melts, she goes over to some grits and adds the rest of the stick of butter, assuring us that these foods will now taste yummy. The program thankfully comes to an end, and I hope that the next show will teach me how to cook something that doesn’t shut my arteries down like the route to Cape Cod on a summer weekend. I am not in luck. This program is on desserts and not only does the male chef use (no exaggeration) three sticks of butter for four desserts, he also tops one of them with freshly whipped heavy cream.

I just don’t get it. Obesity is overwhelming the country. To try to combat it, health writers implore us to adopt healthy eating habits, people are given calorie information on packaged foods and now in New York restaurants, reality TV shows showcase contestants competing for the highest weekly weight loss and restaurant corporations are altering their menus to include calorically lighter fare. But to watch the food channel, one might think that we were a nation of underweight, underfed, over-exercising individuals who need to eat a half a pound of butter a day just to survive.

What if the Food Network was required to tell the viewers how many calories are in an average size serving of each dish featured on the program? Let the cook on each show plate an average serving of carrots, or grits or deep-fried melted cheese and ham sandwiches and display the number of calories the foods contain. With that information we would not be able to deceive ourselves into thinking that just because the butter is not longer visible in the dish, it is not there.

Exposing the caloric contents of the cooking show foods is very likely to influence their consumption. At least this is what New York restaurants have been learning. Last week, the New York Times reviewed the response of several restaurants in the city to calorie labeling of their menus. According to the article, which appeared on Oct. 29th, Dunkin’ Donuts added a low-calorie egg white breakfast sandwich, Cosi (a sandwich chain) is now using a low-fat mayonnaise and several restaurants decreased substantially the size of their servings. Starbucks, for example, decided to reduce the size of its butter-filled croissant rather than decrease its butter content. Another popular lunch restaurant decreased the size of its quiche from eleven ounces to six.

No one expects that giving caloric information will change people’s eating habits by tomorrow. Just as we (until recently anyway) allowed ourselves to buy impulsively even if the cost was too high, we will still eat something we want regardless of its calorie cost. But the impact of calorie labeling is to allow us to make an educated choice. If we see that a tuna melt sandwich has l700 calories and a grilled chicken sandwich 580, we may be more likely to eat the sandwich with fewer calories. We may be less casual about the kind and amount of food we mindlessly munch on for snacks. The article pointed out that a large bucket of movie popcorn has more than half the number of calories we should be eating in a day. Add a large soft drink to that and you may leave the movie theater heavier than when you entered.

I am not optimistic that the Food Network will undergo a major shift in its cooking policies. The main reason is that high-fat ingredients make food taste good. Heavy cream, bacon, egg yolks, oil, cheese, and butter are the staples of western cooking, especially France. But the mission of the Food Network should be, in part, to each us how to make food taste good without depending on these unhealthy ingredients.

Tell me how to make healthy foods that a relative who just had a quadruple by pass can eat without having another heart attack. Show me how to assemble ingredients for a dinner party, which do not require a double dose of cholesterol-reducing drugs afterward. How can I make foods taste savory without using added salt? Are there desserts out there that a dieter can eat and treats for kids that won’t push them into obesity?

Fortunately there are many sources of nutrient-rich recipes that are low in salt, sugar and fat. Many women’s magazines feature healthy recipes, and magazines devoted to cooking, such as Cooking Light, are filled with dishes that meet exacting health standards. Internet recipes will also give nutritional information so you know the calorie and nutrient content of what your are cooking.

And in the meanwhile, as I wait for the Food Network to change, in the gym I’ll just watch ESPN.
]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081106-160835 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:08:35 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081028-133602 I was asked to bring dessert to a potluck dinner and found a seasonally appropriate recipe on the Web: apple-cranberry crisp. As the paper came off the printer I noticed that the calories per serving were listed in a corner of the page. “No way,” I thought. “This dish couldn’t have almost 600 calories per serving. It’s mostly apples, cranberries and a little oatmeal for the topping.” I had not noticed the amount of butter in the recipe: half a cup for the topping and about the same for the filling. And to make the calorie count even higher, the dish was supposed to be served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

It was easy to cut back the calories just by eliminating butter from the fruit layer (who needs melted butter on top of apples and cranberries?) and using low-fat granola as the topping. The dish might not taste as rich but on the other hand, the weight and arteries of the guests would be better off.

How many of us really think about the calories we are feeding our guests as we work our menus for family celebrations, Thanksgiving, and the subsequent holiday parties? Recipes are selected usually because they are traditional for the occasion, fit into the format of the meal such as a buffet or sit-down dinner, or are easy on the budget or preparation time. Do we examine the ingredients in the recipes for their fat and caloric contents? Or unless we know that a guest has a medical condition, which restricts eating certain foods such as dairy products or foods high in cholesterol, do we bother substituting healthier ingredients for the ones normally found in the dish?

I confess that I have been guilty of making holiday dishes that I know are not particularly healthy and are certainly fattening. In fact, like most people, I never even paid any attention to the calorie content since most recipes, especially those which have been in the family for a long time, have no calorie information associated with them. But this year several of our holiday guests have been struggling with their weight, one is recovering from a serious heart condition, and another has lactose intolerance. Rather than giving up and serving everyone a lettuce leaf for Thanksgiving, I went to the Web and discovered an almost inexhaustible number of recipes in which the traditional ingredients have been replaced by alternatives ones that meet my guests’ medical needs. I also changed the menu. I will add more vegetables and steam them. A salad will take the place of a heavy sweet potato casserole. No cranberry bread this year since it’s too high in oil and sugar. Crusty bakery bread will do instead. And the dressing, which we call stuffing, will cook outside the turkey to avoid soaking up the turkey fat. Finally, my pumpkin pie recipe will be made with soymilk rather than condensed milk for my lactose intolerant guest.

It is so easy to get drawn into making foods for guests that you would certainly not eat on a steady basis. We all want to present festive meals that are distinguished from our daily, routine fare because having people for dinner is an occasion. It is like my grandparents taking the plastic covers off of their living room furniture because guests, not family, would be sitting on it. But our guests are like you and me. They struggle with their weight, they are warned by physicians to watch their diet, and they are just as tempted as we are to overeat or indulge in foods that are fattening. And we are not doing them a favor by having them leave our dinning room table potentially heavier and with increased levels of cholesterol and salt in their bodies. After all, as hosts our responsibility is to care for the well being of our guests and this must include what we feed them. So when you plan your Thanksgiving menu, or menus for other social occasions, serve foods that are moderate in calories, fat and salt. Unless of course, you don’t want your guests to come again.

]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081028-133602 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:36:02 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081027-171408
“It is so dark when I get up,” complained my neighbor as we opened our doors to get our morning newspapers. I nodded, as it was hard not to notice that 6 AM is as dark as 3 AM these days. “But,“ she went on, “ it seems worse when we put the clocks back and it gets dark before I get home from work. Sometimes I never see the sun until the weekend because my office doesn’t have a window. I really get depressed this time of year.”

The quickly dwindling hours of daylight that characterize the late fall months arouses negative feelings in most of us. To be sure, the short days are associated in many parts of the country with the beginning of harsh weather and all the discomforts of cold winter winds, slush, ice, and too much snow. But people who live in the southern tier of states, who welcome the lower heat and humidity of winter, may also feel their mood changing when the sun rises later and sets earlier. Because unless one lives at the equator where the days and nights are always 12 hours long, days are shorter in the winter in the southern part of the country as well as in the north.

SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder, is the name given to a cluster of mood, energy and appetite changes that appear when the sun disappears. People become very tired and sleepy, feel depressed, apathetic, withdrawn and irritable, and experience intense cravings for carbohydrates. The intensity of these changes range from mild to severe and the symptoms may last from fall until late spring. What is so remarkable about SAD is that all the symptoms disappear as soon as the days become long again.

Since moving to the equator is not an option for most people, we are all faced with the need to get through these dark months and still maintain the quality of our work and personal lives. The use of therapeutic light has been successful in diminishing the severity of SAD. Specially designed light boxes emit a spectrum of light rays that mimic those of full sunlight. People are exposed to the light when they awake and after a few days, they report themselves feeling less depressed and more energetic. The use of these light boxes may be combined with antidepressant therapy for people whose major complaint is depression. But many people don’t even realize they are suffering from SAD. I knew a woman who thought her tiredness and excessive sleepiness were due to a prolonged bout of the flu. Others assume that the increased eating and weight gain that occurs every fall and winter is their body’s way of preparing itself for enduring the cold of the winter.

“My body needs an extra padding of fat, so of course I will eat more when the weather gets cold,” a client, who was trying to rationalize her seasonal weight gain, said to me. When I pointed out to her that the only time she was outside was when she walked from her car to her office or house, she shrugged and said that her body didn’t know that.

This is the time to take defensive measures to diminish the impact of seasonal mood and appetite changes on the quality of your life. So:
1. Get some sunshine, if possible, every day. Going outside at noon is optimal even on cloudy days because that is when the sun is highest. But if you can be in the sun early in the morning or mid-afternoon before it begins to set, your mood and energy levels will be stable.
2. Force yourself to do some physical activity. Research has shown that emotional and mental fatigue are diminished by physical activity. If you have a piece of exercise equipment at home, use it. And make sure it is not in the darkest part of the cellar. Exercise in a bright place. Take a walk at noon if possible. Consider joining a gym or a place like Curves where you can exercise quickly but intensely. As the winter goes on, your motivation will diminish but promise yourself that you will continue to move. You will be thankful you did, as the exercise will really maintain your energy levels.
3. Give in to your cravings for carbohydrate in a healthy way. A few years ]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081027-171408 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:14:08 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081014-045742 How do you know how much to eat when you sit in front of a plate or bowl of food? Restaurant food usually comes in portions too large for a dieter or someone trying to maintain weight loss.

People on diets are told to weigh and measure their food before serving themselves, so they know how much they are eating. But
after a while, dieters stop weighing and measuring—assuming they had done so—and tell themselves that they can judge how much should be eaten by “eyeballing” the amount of food on the plate. And they believe they know how much to leave behind if the portion looks too large.

But can this really be done? What would happen if, despite how much you eat, the amount of food on the plate stayed the same? Would you stop eating? And when?

This was the basis of an experiment published in Obesity Research in January 2005. The team of researchers devised a soup bowl connected to a hidden tube that was, in turn, connected to a vat of soup. They asked volunteers to eat the soup, which was tomato. As the soup was consumed, the hidden tube poured more soup into the bowl. The level of the soup in the bowl did drop enough so the eaters did not suspect anything. But the bowl never emptied. The volunteers were allowed to eat only for 20 minutes; otherwise, if they were allowed to eat for a long time, they might have suspected something when they could never see the bottom of the bowl.

Other volunteers were given a normal bowl and if they finished all the soup, they were offered more.

The volunteers eating out of the “endless soup bowl’” ate 73% more soup than the volunteers who ate from the normal bowl. Yet the endless bowl volunteers did not report themselves as being any fuller or stuffed than the people eating from the non-tampered bowls. In fact, they may have continued eating if they were given more time to do so.

Wansink, Painter and North, the scientists who carried out the study, discussed the implications of their findings for weight control. They wrote that if we rely on our eyes to tell us when to stop eating, rather than how full we feel, we are going to find ourselves overeating a good deal of time. People who belonged to the clean plate club as children know this already and try to prevent themselves from consuming too much by making sure the amount of food on their plate is appropriate.

“I insist on being served a small piece of cake or pie,” a friend told me. “I know I could eat a really large piece, but I have trained myself to eat only what is on my plate and if it is a small portion, I won’t ask for more.”

Fortunately, people who describe themselves as on a “see food” diet (they see food and eat it) can use some simple tricks to prevent themselves from falling into the trap of the “bottomless-soup” eaters.

Be aware of how full you are feeling as you eat. Fast eaters are out of luck with this suggestion because they can consume very large portions in a very small amount of time and don’t stop to judge how full they are until they stop eating. If you are one of these people, divide your food into two portions, eat one and wait five minutes before eating the rest. When you start eating again, take a few seconds to ask yourself if you are as hungry as when you started eating. You may find yourself eating less than you had planned.
Obviously this did not work for the soup eaters but as the researchers explained, it may be possible to consume more of a liquid meal; i.e., soup, without feeling full.

Use small plates. This sounds so simple but it really works. Think of how rice is served in a Chinese restaurant. It comes in a small bowl heaped into a dome and looks like a large portion. But if the rice were put into a large pasta bowl, the portion size would look smaller. It seems irrational but we like to think we are eating enough, even if we know the portion size isn’t large, and small plates help fool us in this way. This also works if you are at a buffet. Salad-size plates limit the amount of food you can take. In fact, smaller size plates are becoming more common at catered events, perhaps to limit the amount of food customers are taking. Even though you can go back for more helpings you are aware of doing so and this helps control the amount of food you are eating.

Stay away from restaurants that boast of large portions, including fast-food chains. It might never occur to you to eat a four-hamburger patty, cheese and bacon-filled bun until one is put in front of you. But, like the soup eaters, if it is there, you may find yourself eating it until nothing is left but the wrapper. If you know ahead of time that the portions are too large for your caloric quota, plan on sharing, taking the extra home, or ordering an appetizer rather than entrée.

Don’t eat out of large containers of ice cream, snacks, cookie packages, and bags of candy. This is a prescription for caloric disaster, since you may continue eating as long as you see the food.

Let your stomach be your eyes. As you begin to feel full, don’t let the presence of uneaten food motivate you to continue eating. You will see the results on the scale.


]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081014-045742 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Tue, 14 Oct 2008 11:57:42 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081005-180950 We have a friend who was treated with prednisone ( a form of cortisone) for several weeks before his physicians figured out that he had Lyme disease. He was describing his ordeal and mentioned that along with thinking he had a variety of incurable diseases, he also gained a lot of weight. “ I had a passion for rice pudding”, he told me. “ I would go to the supermarket and buy cartons and cartons of the ready to eat pudding. In fact, I stopped thinking I had a fatal disease because I was gaining so much weight. Of course it was the prednisone. As soon as I went off of it, I stopped overeating and lost all the weight I gained.”

Many people have had similar experiences with this drug; not the rice pudding part but the overeating and weight gain. Fortunately people usually don’t have to stay on the drug chronically and they will lose their weight once they stop taking it. But there are many other drugs which are taken chronically and which may also cause weight gain. Drugs used to treat mental and emotional disorders have a long history of causing substantial weight gain. Lithium which has been around for decades was probably the first to be identified but many of the drugs that came along more recently have the same side effect. The more severe the mental illness, the greater the chance that the drugs used to treat the disease will cause weight gain. I have a distant relative by marriage who used to be a model. When she was treated with a class of drugs known as mood stabilizers, she went from a size 2 to a size 18. Her change in weight was not rare and her story is repeated among people who are being treated for schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder, bipolar depression , depression, anxiety and other mental disturbances. Sometimes the weight gained is only 20-30 pounds but gaining more than 100 lbs in a year or less is well known. To be fair, some of the gain in weight may be caused by lack of nutritional information. If a drug causes a dry mouth and chronic thirst and if the patient satisfies this thirst with juice , soda, or chocolate milk, obviously weight will be gained. Some of these drugs cause fatigue and hypersomnia ; i.e. sleeping more than usual. So if a previously active person becomes sedentary, weight can be gained even if food intake has not increased.
But many patients who gain weight report that they simply can’t stop eating. Victoria , a botanist told me “ No matter how big dinner is, I want to eat an hour later.” “ I used to weigh 123 pounds and could easily fit into a size 4 or 6. Now I am lucky if I can squeeze into a size 12. I keep telling myself to stay out of the kitchen but I feel as if there is a hand on my back pushing me toward the refrigerator all the time.”

The current thinking on why these drugs that act on the brain cause overeating is that they may trigger a brain neurotransmitter, histamine that stimulates hunger. This has been shown for some drugs in research animals. So far no drugs have been developed to stop this side effect even though the gain in weight may lead to obesity related medical problems.
We found almost by accident that our approach to weight loss would help those people who weight gain was caused by their medications. While running a weight loss clinic for people who were emotional overeaters, we started to treat many clients who had gained weight on their antidepressants, mood stabilizers and related medications. The clinic’s food plan was based on drinking a carbohydrate beverage twice daily to increase brain serotonin. Since we knew that serotonin was the brain’s natural appetite suppressant, we hoped that the anti-eating effect of serotonin might counteract the pro-eating effect of their medications.
And it worked. These clients lost as much weight as those who were not on medications, even though the first group were on drugs that made them want to eat.

As we explain in the Serotonin Power Diet, a therapeutic amount of carbohydrate will help control eating by potentiating the anti-hunger effect of serotonin. The carbohydrate is eaten as a snack in a calorie and fat controlled amount. The snacking fits into a diet plan which allows a one or two pound weight loss each week. This may not seem like much but for people who are gaining a pound every two weeks or so, the weight loss is significant. And what is just as important is that people do not have to choose between staying on medication that brings about a sense of emotional balance or going off of it in order not to gain weight.
The weight comes off; the good mood stays.
]]> Antidepressants http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081005-180950 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:09:50 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081004-054025 People use sugar substitutes for all sorts of reasons. Some must not consume sugar because of diabetes or high triglyceride levels in their blood (triglycerides are fat molecules). Others equate sugary foods with nutritionally empty calories and so avoid them. Dieters on a high- protein, low-carbohydrate weight-loss program avoid sugar because they believe it will delay their weight loss. Sugar-filled carbonated beverages are avoided because consuming 120 calories or so of sugar when you want to satisfy your thirst seems like a big caloric price to pay. And many will say that once they start eating something that tastes sweet, they are unable to stop. So they don’t start.

Sugar substitutes such as Equal®, Sweet ‘N Low, and Splenda®, to name those most commonly found when you buy a cup of coffee, are effective in producing a sweet taste without the calories. It is hard to imagine a world without diet soda or not being able to sweeten a grapefruit or lemonade without using sugar. Yet ever since saccharine, the first artificial sweetener, came on the market there have been studies to see whether sugar substitutes are dangerous.

There is a new study from Duke University that crept into the news recently under the cover of disasters on Wall Street. The study, which was funded by the Sugar Association, took rats and fed them sugar or Splenda for several weeks. Splenda is sucralose, a substance whose sweetness is considerably greater than sugar. According to the study, the rats grew obese and developed unhealthy intestinal bacteria when fed the Splenda. The sugar fed rats remained healthy.
It is unclear at this point whether the findings have any immediate health implications for human use. Consuming anything in large amounts is bound to have side effects; people have been known to die because they drank too much water during a marathon. But until the study is repeated with human volunteers who consume these sweetening agents in typical amounts, it is hard to know whether the claims from the animal study have any validity.

However, there are some obvious things that should be mentioned here: Foods that contain sugar often contain large amounts of fat. If artificial sweeteners such as Splenda are used in their preparation, the foods are still going to contain significant amounts calories because the fat is still there. The reduction in calories caused by removing the sugar does not make those foods diet-friendly.

People on high-protein diets have been told to satisfy their sweet tooth and need for dessert by adding artificial sweeteners to foods like whipped cream. This is like adding artificial sweetener to butter (by the way, if you whip heavy cream for too long, it turns into butter). If weight gain results, it is not due to the use of Splenda or any other artificial substance but to the fat.

We have all seen people order and eat a luscious and extravagantly caloric dessert and then add an artificial sweetener to their coffee. One explanation I have heard is that the artificial sweetener tastes sweeter than sugar, which is why it is used. But the other is “‘why not save a few calories since I am already consuming 500 or more in the dessert?” Since the rats in the Duke study were not given the option of dessert and coffee with or without Splenda, this was not the cause of their weight gain but it may be the cause of ours.

It is important to know that there are times when eating sugar and not an artificial sweetener can help control your eating and even help you lose weight.

Sugar is a member of the carbohydrate family. All carbohydrates, with the exception of fruit sugar, will bring about the manufacture of the brain chemical serotonin. Serotonin stops eating. It may not bring it to a screeching halt but it really turns off the desire to put more food in your mouth. We have found in our clinical practice that people who tend toward bingeing can abort their excessive overeating by consuming small quantities of very sugary foods. If the food has no fat or fiber, the sugary food is digested very quickly. The only other condition is that food be without protein, as protein prevents serotonin from being made.

Some candies made exclusively for Halloween meet these criteria. Brach makes small candies called Mellowcreme Pumpkins. They contain no fat and their first ingredient is sugar. One of our patients used to stock them in her pantry to prevent binges. “I used to throw food in my mouth when I got upset,” she said. “ I just could not turn off the eating. But three of these little pumpkin candies is all I can eat. Then a switch goes off and I simply stop. It is as if my brain says to me ‘go away and do something else’. “

Several other clients told us about a chocolate frosting–like energy food called GU whose only ingredient is sugar. GU comes in a small plastic packet similar in size to fast-food chain ketchup packages and is used by long-distance runners and bikers for quick energy. Our clients discovered another function: GU turned off their bingeing. “Just squeeze it on your tongue and then drink some water,” one of them told us. “Within minutes, you simply stop eating. It is as if I switch went off in your head.” Of course the switch was serotonin.

Artificial sweeteners can’t do this. They taste sweeter on the tongue than sugar but are incapable of getting the brain to make serotonin and turn off eating. So my advice to the rats getting fat on Splenda: when you are bingeing, switch to sugar. The same advice works for people.

]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry081004-054025 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Sat, 04 Oct 2008 12:40:25 GMT http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry080929-064853
A town near where I live has decided that kids should start walking to school. Houses are close together, there are sidewalks, school crossing guards and now walking (not car) pools. Neighborhood Moms organize themselves into morning and afternoon walkers, taking turns escorting a group of neighborhood children to school. Everyone seems happy. The town officials are gleeful at the money saved by not using buses, the moms are busy telling their offspring how they, the parents, walked miles in blizzards uphill to get to school, and the school nurse is sure the kids will become more fit. And the kids will learn the joys of kicking piles of leaves, stomping through puddles, and throwing snowballs on the way to and from school.

What is so interesting about this concept of walking–pooling rather than car–pooling is how eager the mothers are to participate. Many of them, when interviewed, said that they loved walking because there was a purpose to it. “ I am not just walking around my neighborhood to get exercise,” said one. “I am collecting the kids, making sure they stick together and get to school on time. And at the end of the school day, I have the fun of meeting them in the playground, hearing what went on during their day and making sure they all get home.”

It is really hard to motivate people to walk on a regular basis if the purpose of the walking is exercise. Regardless of how important physical activity is, and despite how easy it is to go out the door and start moving, there is a lot of resistance to doing so. Many people feel it is a waste of time. Why should they be strolling around and around their neighborhood when they have too much to do and too little time to do it in?

Most people walk on a consistent basis when they have to get from point A to point B. Some cities are crowded with walkers; many find it is faster to walk short distances than to drive (and find a place to leave the car), or even wait for public transportation. I live in a city whose ballpark is located in a congested residential, commercial and university area. Driving is impossible on game nights so people take public transportation and walk, sometimes many blocks. In fact, you can always tell when the home team is in town by the hordes of people all over the downtown area walking to the subway or to the ballpark. I imagine that few of these people think walking is a waste of time, much less a boring or useless activity, because it is the only way they are going to get to see the game at the ballpark.

Not everyone lives or works in areas that permit destination walking. Office parks located in the middle of nowhere, strip malls on either side of heavily trafficked superhighways, suburbs without sidewalks, and cities that sprawl present formidable obstacles to walking as a way of getting somewhere. One hopes that one effect of the high gasoline prices is the emergence of commercial and recreational centers that can be reached on foot. But until, and if, that happens, one way to make walking relevant is to identify places where walking is the only option for seeing or doing something. Museums, zoos, wildlife sanctuaries, riverwalks, country fairs, shopping malls, and exhibition halls are some of the places in which walking is a necessity. So put on a pair of comfortable shoes, fill up your water bottle and go. Your destination is waiting.
]]> http://www.serotoninpowerdiet.com//blog/index.php?entry=entry080929-064853 Judith J. Wurtman, PhD and Nina Frusztajer Marquis, MD Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:48:53 GMT