Why the Experts Hate the Dietary Guidelines

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One more time, I hope that you’ve taken the time to read the link I gave you for the 2015 Dietary Guidelines. It’s a summary that’s easy to read. Is there more information? Absolutely, good information, and you can spend some time looking around using the links in the left hand side of the summary. I especially love the section on what Americans currently eat. Do you know that adults eat less than one serving of whole grains a day? And men . . .

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Why You Should Follow the New Guidelines

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Did you do your homework? Did you read the Executive Summary of the Dietary Guidelines as I asked you to do on Monday? If not, do it right now: click on the link below and take the 10 minutes to check it out before you read on.

Here are my thoughts.

There are really no arguments with the five Dietary Guidelines. They’re intentionally vague, but they resound in my mind. For example, the first recommendation says to eat healthy over a lifespan. That implies you should consistently eat healthy—not just kale, because it’s the hot new veggie . . .

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The 2015 Dietary Guidelines

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Before you begin reading, answer these questions: What are the Dietary Guidelines that were published in 2010? Can you remember any of them? Can you remember even one of them?

The 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines were published late last week. Research was reviewed. Meetings were held. Comments were given. Experts have given input. Millions of dollars were spent. Is there anything groundbreaking in the 2015 Guidelines? You’ve probably heard about some of the changes: eggs are okay again, the current sodium intake is not, and we should lower our sugar intake. But that’s headline stuff.

Here’s what . . .

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“In Defense of Food”: The Key Omission

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The movie “In Defense of Food” is a must see, as I’ve said. I think it makes the most reasonable presentation for what we should and should not eat to be healthy. But it also has a glaring omission.

In the movie, a segment focuses on the Hadza, a nomadic tribe in Tanzania and one of the last cultures who are still hunter-gatherers. They eat what they find and occasionally kill. A staple of their diet is very fibrous root vegetables.

The movie also does a segment on a group of elderly 7th Day Adventists. They believe their . . .

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“In Defense of Food”: The Time Factor

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I’ve heard from a number of you who’ve seen “In Defense of Food” by now. If you haven’t, find it and plan to watch it; this is one movie the whole family should watch together. As I said on Tuesday, I think it’s the most fair and balanced presentation I’ve seen on what to eat. But there were a couple of things I don’t think were covered as well as they might be.

One of the segments focuses on teaching kids in inner cities how to grow produce and how to cook it, in . . .

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A Must-See Movie

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The holiday season has been filled with one blockbuster movie after another, but if you want to see a movie that can help you decide what to eat, you have to see “In Defense of Food” with Michael Pollan. It also happens to be free on your PBS station or On Demand depending on your cable or satellite offerings.

There have been many movies that examine the foods we eat today. Most are more political and a criticism of business, government, and especially meat more than anything else. Not this movie. Pollan, a journalism professor, takes a look at food . . .

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One Goal: Learn

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As we reach the end of 2015, many of you are setting your goals for 2016. For those goals related to health or business, I challenge you to do one thing with each goal: learn all you can in the process. Here’s what I mean.

 

Health Goals

Most of you will set a weight or fitness goal. Fantastic. You’re probably going to use an established program, you’ll follow it, and you’ll get results. Excellent. What do you do when you achieve your goal, whether it takes a few months or the entire year . . .

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Merry Christmas

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Every year when we bake Christmas cookies, Paula and I watch our favorite Christmas movies again. There are so many we’ve accumulated, we don’t watch them all, but one that really captures the essence of what Christmas is all about is a British film called “Love Actually” even though it’s not exactly G-rated. Here is actor Hugh Grant’s opening voiceover:

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion makes out that we live in a world of . . .

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The Bottom Line on a Probiotic for Weight Loss: Misdirection

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One of the basic tenets of magic is misdirection. The magician gets you to look at his right hand when it’s actually his left hand that’s hiding something. I’m going to use that analogy as we finish our look at the probiotic Akkermansia muciniphila.

Let’s start with this. The microbiome of people who weigh less is different from the microbiome of those who weigh more. It seems if we could figure out what bacteria are different between those groups, we might be able to help those who weigh more lose weight. It makes sense . . .

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A New Probiotic for Weight Loss?

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Weight is always a hot topic, so I’m telling you about two weight-loss studies this week. The idea is to give you some idea how the next great thing could hit the market—or it may not—but if it does, you read it here first. The potential solution is a good bacterium called Akkermansia muciniphila. This probiotic may be a key to weight loss, or it may not. Let’s take a look at the first study. I’ll only hit the highlights because these were two of the most complicated research papers I’ve . . .

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