Image via WikipediaI have been thinking a lot lately about the food we all eat and whether or not I’m making a real effort to eat healthier. My concern has everything to do with being heart-healthy, strong, and fit. In my book fit = healthy; this is not about being a particular “size.” I took my concerns to my doctor and she suggested that I keep a food diary so that we could analyze the nutritional content of my daily diet. I immediately groaned. I absolutely hated the idea of “logging” my meals. It’s not that I was afraid to “see” what I eating; it was just the idea of “wasting” the time to write down each meal.Fast-forward a few weeks and I receive an email from a public relations firm about the following: Kaiser Permanente Study Finds Keeping a Food Diary Doubles Diet Weight Loss.
I guess the universe must be trying to tell me that yes, perhaps a food diary is not such a bad idea after all. In my efforts to be more heart-healthy, I came across the following information:
Do women of color need to worry about heart disease?Yes. African American and Hispanic American/Latina women are more likely to get heart disease because they tend to have more risk factors such as obesity, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, and diabetes than white women. Women of color also are more likely than white women to die of heart disease. If you're a woman of color, take steps to reduce your risk factors.What can I do to prevent heart disease?
You can reduce your chances of getting heart disease by taking these steps:
- Know your blood pressure.
- Don't smoke.
- Get tested for diabetes .
- Get your cholesterol and triglyceride levels tested.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- If you drink alcohol, limit it to no more than one drink (one 12 ounce beer, one 5 ounce glass of wine, or one 1.5 ounce shot of hard liquor) a day.
- Find healthy ways to cope with stress. Source
Study is one of few trials to recruit large percentage of African American participants
July 8, 2008 (Portland, Ore.) – Keeping a food diary can double a person’s weight loss according to a study from Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research. The findings, from one of the largest and longest running weight loss maintenance trials ever conducted, will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, the study is one of the few studies to recruit a large percentage of African Americans as study participants (44 percent). African Americans have a higher risk of conditions that are aggravated by being overweight, including diabetes and heart disease. In this study, the majority of African American participants lost at least nine pounds of weight, which is higher than in previous studies.
“The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost,” said lead author Jack Hollis Ph.D., a researcher at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore. “Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories.”
In addition to keeping food diaries, participants were asked to follow a heart-healthy DASH (a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low-fat or non-fat dairy, attend weekly group sessions and exercise at moderate intensity levels for at least 30 minutes a day. After six months, the average weight loss among the nearly 1,700 participants was approximately 13 pounds. More than two-thirds of the participants (69 percent) lost at least nine pounds, enough to reduce their health risks and qualify for the second phase of the study, which lasted 30 months and tested strategies for maintaining the weight loss.
“More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. If we all lost just nine pounds, like the majority of people in this study did, our nation would see vast decreases in hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke,” said study co-author Victor Stevens, Ph.D., a Kaiser Permanente researcher. For example, in an earlier study Stevens found that losing as little as five pounds can reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure by 20 percent.
The Kaiser Permanente Care Management Institute’s Weight Management Initiative (http://www.kpcmi.org/weight-management/index.html) has recommended food journaling as a strategy for losing weight since 2002. The Weight Management Initiative unites clinicians, researchers, insurers, and policymakers to identify practical, effective, non-surgical approaches for the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity.
“Keeping a food diary doesn’t have to be a formal thing. Just the act of scribbling down what you eat on a Post-It note, sending yourself e-mails tallying each meal, or sending yourself a text message will suffice. It’s the process of reflecting on what you eat that helps us become aware of our habits, and hopefully change our behavior,” says Keith Bachman, MD, a Weight Management Initiative member. “Every day I hear patients say they can’t lose weight. This study shows that most people can lose weight if they have the right tools and support. And food journaling in conjunction with a weight management program or class is the ideal combination of tools and support.”
About the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research, founded in 1964, is a nonprofit research institution dedicated to advancing knowledge to improve health. It has research sites in Portland, Ore., Honolulu, Hawaii and Atlanta.
For more Kaiser Permanente news, visit the KP News Center at: http://xnet.kp.org/newscenter.
Source : GolinHarris Press Release via email to me
I am providing this information in sincere love for Black women and girls everywhere. Please consult a doctor before beginning a new diet or exercise plan !
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