Exercise at least 1 hour a day. Schwarzenegger bans trans fats in CA restaurants and bakeries
Exercise: It's an hour a day, people. Seriously. (LA Times):
That 30 minutes of daily exercise you think you’re supposed to do to keep weight off? You need to step it up, people. As much as twice that amount may be needed to lose weight and keep it off.
A recent study found that overweight and obese women needed to exercise about an hour a day, five days a week to sustain weight loss. The findings bolster what some health experts - and those who have lost weight and kept it off - have been saying for years: copious amounts of exercise and adherence to a strict diet are necessary to take off the pounds and keep them at bay.
[Effect of Exercise on 24-Month Weight Loss Maintenance in Overweight Women {Archives of Internal Medicine).]
The women who exercised more and stuck to their diets kept off a 10% weight loss over two years, compared with others who maintained only 5%. The report, which appeared in the July 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, studied 201 women during an intervention that spanned from 1999 to 2003. All the women were asked to consume 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day, and they were assigned to one of four groups: one that burned 1,000 calories a week, one that burned 2,000 calories a week, one that exercised moderately and one that exercised vigorously. Participants also attended group meetings where they learned how to change their diet and activity and received follow-up calls via telephone.
Six months later, all four groups had lost an average of 8% to 10% of their body weight. But it didn’t last. After two years, the average weight of all participants was only 5% lower than their initial weight, and there was no difference among the groups.
But some did better than average. About a quarter of the women who managed to sustain a 10% weight loss exercised more, adhered to better eating habits and engaged more often by phone with the intervention team. For them, exercise amounted to an average of expending 1,835 calories a week, or 275 minutes per week.
"This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss, but also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity," wrote the authors (headed up by John Jakicic, director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh), who also recommended further research to discover how to continue to motivate people to exercise.
-- Jeannine Stein
Woo hoo! I'm proud of you, my California! Remember: avoid saturated fats too. Eat unsaturated fat. And don't eat more cookies and cakes just because they are "trans fat free." That will cancel the benefits of eating healthier in the first place!
Schwarzenegger signs law banning trans fats in restaurants (LA Times):
California became the first state to require restaurants to cook without artery-clogging trans fats, such as those in many oils and margarines, under restrictions signed into law Friday by the health-conscious governor.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a physical-fitness advocate and crusader against obesity, sided with legislators who said the measure would help get the fat out of Californians who are too dependent on fast food.
Trans fats can preserve flavor and add to the shelf life of foods but have been linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
The new law, AB 97 by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), requires restaurants to use oils, margarines and shortening with less than half a gram of trans fat per serving by Jan. 1, 2010, and applies the standard to deep-fried bakery goods by Jan. 1, 2011.
"California is a leader in promoting health and nutrition, and I am pleased to continue that tradition by being the first state in the nation to phase out trans fats," Schwarzenegger said. "Consuming trans fat is linked to coronary heart disease, and today we are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California."
New York City has a similar ban, which began July 1 with a three-month grace period.
Those who violate the California law could face fines of $25 to $1,000.
The legislation was vigorously opposed by the California Restaurant Assn., which argued that it would not substantially affect public health because people eat 75% of their meals at home.
The decision on what restaurants use in cooking should be based on the desires of customers, not government officials, said association spokesman Daniel Conway.
Even so, he said, "given the fact that our industry is already phasing out trans fat in response to customers and that there is a delayed timeline for implementation, we are confident our members will be able to meet the mandate of the law."
Indeed, the law follows steps already taken by such institutions as McDonald's and Spago Beverly Hills to meet customer demand.
"I am completely in support of it," chef and Spago owner Wolfgang Puck said in an e-mail. "My companies stopped using trans fats years ago."
The fats can be found in vegetable shortenings, margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Carl's Jr. chain plans to stop cooking with trans fats by the beginning of the year, said company spokeswoman Beth Mansfield.
"We saw where the industry was going," she said.
Other chains that have fully or partly eliminated trans fat or had previously committed to doing so include Wendy's, El Pollo Loco, Mimis Cafe, KFC, Burger King, IHOP, Applebee's, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, Denny's, Panera Bread, Red Lobster and the Olive Garden, according to the restaurant association. [Continued...]
Q&A: What foods have high levels of trans fats?
'Trans-fat free' does not mean 'good for you'
Don't ban trans fats, disclose them:
Eateries would be almost certain to replace partially hydrogenated oil with other types of fat that are only moderately better. Palm and coconut oils, for example, are very high in saturated fat and were themselves targeted by health experts before hydrogenated oil replaced them on dietitians' hit lists. Moreover, there's reason to worry that if the ban makes Californians believe restaurant fare is healthier, they'll load their plates with even more fatty food. There is zero difference in calorie content between trans fats and other fats: You'll get just as chubby eating cookies made with butter as with hydrogenated-oil-laden shortening.
Consumers are wise to be careful about what they eat, and they have a right to know what's in their entrees.
That 30 minutes of daily exercise you think you’re supposed to do to keep weight off? You need to step it up, people. As much as twice that amount may be needed to lose weight and keep it off.
A recent study found that overweight and obese women needed to exercise about an hour a day, five days a week to sustain weight loss. The findings bolster what some health experts - and those who have lost weight and kept it off - have been saying for years: copious amounts of exercise and adherence to a strict diet are necessary to take off the pounds and keep them at bay.
[Effect of Exercise on 24-Month Weight Loss Maintenance in Overweight Women {Archives of Internal Medicine).]
The women who exercised more and stuck to their diets kept off a 10% weight loss over two years, compared with others who maintained only 5%. The report, which appeared in the July 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, studied 201 women during an intervention that spanned from 1999 to 2003. All the women were asked to consume 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day, and they were assigned to one of four groups: one that burned 1,000 calories a week, one that burned 2,000 calories a week, one that exercised moderately and one that exercised vigorously. Participants also attended group meetings where they learned how to change their diet and activity and received follow-up calls via telephone.
Six months later, all four groups had lost an average of 8% to 10% of their body weight. But it didn’t last. After two years, the average weight of all participants was only 5% lower than their initial weight, and there was no difference among the groups.
But some did better than average. About a quarter of the women who managed to sustain a 10% weight loss exercised more, adhered to better eating habits and engaged more often by phone with the intervention team. For them, exercise amounted to an average of expending 1,835 calories a week, or 275 minutes per week.
"This clarifies the amount of physical activity that should be targeted for achieving and sustaining this magnitude of weight loss, but also demonstrates the difficulty of sustaining this level of physical activity," wrote the authors (headed up by John Jakicic, director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh), who also recommended further research to discover how to continue to motivate people to exercise.
-- Jeannine Stein
Woo hoo! I'm proud of you, my California! Remember: avoid saturated fats too. Eat unsaturated fat. And don't eat more cookies and cakes just because they are "trans fat free." That will cancel the benefits of eating healthier in the first place!
Schwarzenegger signs law banning trans fats in restaurants (LA Times):
California became the first state to require restaurants to cook without artery-clogging trans fats, such as those in many oils and margarines, under restrictions signed into law Friday by the health-conscious governor.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a physical-fitness advocate and crusader against obesity, sided with legislators who said the measure would help get the fat out of Californians who are too dependent on fast food.
Trans fats can preserve flavor and add to the shelf life of foods but have been linked to heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
The new law, AB 97 by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), requires restaurants to use oils, margarines and shortening with less than half a gram of trans fat per serving by Jan. 1, 2010, and applies the standard to deep-fried bakery goods by Jan. 1, 2011.
"California is a leader in promoting health and nutrition, and I am pleased to continue that tradition by being the first state in the nation to phase out trans fats," Schwarzenegger said. "Consuming trans fat is linked to coronary heart disease, and today we are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California."
New York City has a similar ban, which began July 1 with a three-month grace period.
Those who violate the California law could face fines of $25 to $1,000.
The legislation was vigorously opposed by the California Restaurant Assn., which argued that it would not substantially affect public health because people eat 75% of their meals at home.
The decision on what restaurants use in cooking should be based on the desires of customers, not government officials, said association spokesman Daniel Conway.
Even so, he said, "given the fact that our industry is already phasing out trans fat in response to customers and that there is a delayed timeline for implementation, we are confident our members will be able to meet the mandate of the law."
Indeed, the law follows steps already taken by such institutions as McDonald's and Spago Beverly Hills to meet customer demand.
"I am completely in support of it," chef and Spago owner Wolfgang Puck said in an e-mail. "My companies stopped using trans fats years ago."
The fats can be found in vegetable shortenings, margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Carl's Jr. chain plans to stop cooking with trans fats by the beginning of the year, said company spokeswoman Beth Mansfield.
"We saw where the industry was going," she said.
Other chains that have fully or partly eliminated trans fat or had previously committed to doing so include Wendy's, El Pollo Loco, Mimis Cafe, KFC, Burger King, IHOP, Applebee's, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell, Denny's, Panera Bread, Red Lobster and the Olive Garden, according to the restaurant association. [Continued...]
Q&A: What foods have high levels of trans fats?
'Trans-fat free' does not mean 'good for you'
Don't ban trans fats, disclose them:
Eateries would be almost certain to replace partially hydrogenated oil with other types of fat that are only moderately better. Palm and coconut oils, for example, are very high in saturated fat and were themselves targeted by health experts before hydrogenated oil replaced them on dietitians' hit lists. Moreover, there's reason to worry that if the ban makes Californians believe restaurant fare is healthier, they'll load their plates with even more fatty food. There is zero difference in calorie content between trans fats and other fats: You'll get just as chubby eating cookies made with butter as with hydrogenated-oil-laden shortening.
Consumers are wise to be careful about what they eat, and they have a right to know what's in their entrees.