We all throw the word"fat" around as if we really know what it is. If I were to stand at the mall and take a survey, I'd likely get the following answers to the question,"What is fat?"

"Gross"

"Something I have too much of."

"Saturated and unsaturated."

"Something that unfortunately makes food taste good."

Have you ever thought about why we even make and store fat in the first place? Just a few decades ago, nutrition students like me were taught that the primary source of fat was as a storage tissue for excessive calories eaten. Oh! And it helps to insulate you and keep you warm. That was that.

That paradigm is what the vast majority of nutrition advice is based on…that fat is an inactive mass that has little value, really, so when we have too much of it we should do whatever it takes to get rid of it. Diet. Exercise. Liposuction. Bariatric surgery.

In recent years, scientists have been studying fat and learning some really interesting things. Fat is actually an endocrine organ! Just like the pancreas and the liver, our fat tissue manufactures and secretes hormones and chemicals of communication that are used by other parts of the body in other locations. Fat tissue can make estrogen, and it can also even make cortisol! Other hormones that fat tissue can make include leptin, resistin, and adiponectin.

The fact that fat has functions suggests that we should be much more respectful of its existence. Apparently it is created when we need what it does. Simply removing it, without figuring out what conditions triggered it to appear in the first place, is likely why drastic, imbalanced methods of reducing fat don't have long-term success.

I read long ago that insulin has a mild-antidepressant activity. It occurred to me, that when a person is not living their life in balance, and the nervous system is having a hard time doing its job, that we may have been programmed to have back up plans to ensure our survival. Such as not allowing insulin to be used by muscle and fat, rather rendered available to be used by the brain to keep doing what it does. After all, if our brains aren't working, we aren't working…right?

So instead of thinking we are depressed because we are fat…maybe we should consider that we are fat becasue we are depressed.

The type of fat that is found in our abdomens is commonly written about as dangerous to have. Yes, it is associated with a lot of expensive and deadly illnesses. However, it is also where a lot of omega-3 fatty acids are stored. So if we're eating the kind of fat that overpowers the ability of the body to do its job, and not eating enough omega-3 fatty acids in the first place, it's actually pretty amazing, if you think about it, that our bodies have a way to make sure that despite these somewhat self-destructive choices, the fats our brains desperately need, stay in the body and get to where they are most needed?

I stopped thinking of fat as a bad thing a long time ago. When I see someone whose adipose organ is overdeveloped, it makes me stop and think about how far out of balance they must be. If you exercise and train and work your muscles routinely over time, they become big and strong, right? If your life is imbalanced, your fat tissue will be worked out in similar fashion. If you don't need the fat, it is not likely to stick around.

When I see someone with an overdeveloped fat organ, my very first thought is,"That body is having to work sooo hard to stay in balance. That must be an exhausting job."

When you are diligent with self-care, that is you make food choices that promote better balance, you move your body regularly, you don't take on unnecessary stress, and you practice good sleep hygiene, your body won't have to be so dependent on its fat tissue to do all that work. The responsibility is better divided between other body parts.

It's a bit of a shift to wrap your brain around, I know…but I encourage you to think about it. The very fact that you're able to make fat may have been lifesaving, up to this point. But since extra fat was more designed as a backup plan, and not the primary way to stay in balance, perhaps you can think of your choices from this point forward as ways to give that organ a break and not wear it out…not wear YOU out…before your time.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15195692

I enjoy a lot of physical activities. One that I particularly enjoy, likely because I have spent so much of my life in a hot climate, is swimming. Since junior high, one of my very favorite things to do, is get into the pool and swim a mile.

It has always bothered me that fitness experts give this form of exercise such a thumbs down. It's not weight bearing. It doesn't burn fat. Yadayadayada.

Tell me, does this look like the body of an out-of-shape woman to you?!?!?

Of course Dara Torres is genetically blessed, and of course, she lifts weights. But you can't argue that she spends a whole lot of time in the pool. It's not working against HER from what I see!

I wish fitness experts would stop talking about swimming as if it's a useless exercise.

The other night when I was swimming, there were a couple of people in the pool who were clearly getting back into fitness after significant time away. They would never have survived a half hour on the treadmill, or an afternoon hike, or a round of tennis. But they were in the pool and they were working hard. That is what was important.

Here are some reasons I love water fitness and why I encourage you to try it for yourself.

1. Swimming is gentle on your joints. If arthritis keeps you from a lot of activities, swimming might be an answer. You can move your body without pounding the parts of you that hurt.

2. Swimming is a great body image equalizer. Once you're in the pool, no one can really see what you look like. I think that's what keeps a lot of people out of the gym, fear that those in great shape are looking at them and judging them, rather than appreciating the tremendous effort it took to get there.

3. Swimming uses upper and lower body parts. I know I should probably lift more weights. But weights, to me, are incredibly boring. I am getting ready to take tennis lessons, but that's going to use one side of my body more than the other. I could equalize that with.you guessed it…weights…but I'd rather balance it with swimming, which works my upper body in an equalized way that is enjoyable to me.

4. Swimming is meditative. I cannot tell you how many times, after being stuck on a project or writing assignment, I've gone to the pool, started moving, and the perfect idea just popped into my head. It seems to foster brain blood flow in a way that enhances cognitive function.

5. Swimming is relaxing. I ALWAYS sleep well when I swim. In fact, I often have to force myself to stay awake past 8:30 on days that I swim, so that I don't wake up at 4 am ready to go! You all know that poor sleep encourages insulin resistance. If you're sleeping well because you're swimming, the benefit you get may not directly be from how many calories you burn in the pool, but from the improved insulin function that encourages weight loss long after you've been in the water.

6. Swimming doesn't remind you of your body size with every move you make. I agonize for Biggest Loser contestants sweating away on the treadmill. Every step they take, every breath they take, they're reminded of how out of shape they are and how far they have to go. Swimming is the great body size evaporator. You can exert yourself within reason without feeling like you have to punish yourself. The water is one environment where you can, at least temporarily, not have a constant reminder of your size. You're weightless, you can glide, you can float, you can propel yourself. It's a completely size acceptant and encouraging environment.

7. What I've never seen studied, and I've looked for it a lot, is an analysis of what happens to body fat in swimming. It may not drop, but I have a hunch it migrates, toward the skin, where it is needed to help insulate against the water temperature. But if you think about that, it may help you to look a little younger, to have a small layer of fat just underneath the skin to support its structure. I actually kind of like that my body is a little more rounded and not so gaunt and"ripped" when I swim. I think I look more feminine. It's the internal fat, the fat around the middle, that causes problems you don't want. If you're noticing that your waist inches are decreasing, your body fat may be a little higher as a swimmer, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's BAD fat. (I kind of think the reason a lot of my athlete/fitness expert/weight lifting friends don't enjoy swimming is because their body fat is so low they don't have flotation on their side and they have to work too hard to enjoy it. So they justify why you shouldn't pursue it to fit their own physiological bias!)

So there you have it. I've hopefully removed some of the excuses and barriers that keep you out of the pool. If it gets you moving, if it helps you to sleep, if it improves your insulin function…why are you listening to the people who contradict your truth? What matters is what works for YOU. Not what some lean, cut person who has sunk to the bottom of the deep end is trying to tell you.: )

I am a regular exerciser. I'm not super buff, but I am pretty active. Over the last year I have been working out on weights to try to add weight to my (rather wimpy) upper body.

So when I was told at my gym that I had an opportunity to be analyzed for free by a personal trainer, I thought I would take advantage and see what the measurements were.

I'm not obsessive about things like this, in fact, I had to go back to the locker room to weigh myself because it had been so long since I'd been on a scale I didn't know how much I weighed. But I've been the same size for so long I know I have not been a victim of weight creep.

So when the trainer told me that my body fat percentage was 33%, I was floored. I work out 4 times a week, I run, lift, swim, rollerblade…and my clothes still fit.

What gives?

I had the presence of mind to say to the trainer…"Did I mention to you that I have a master's degree in exercise science and I am a registered dietitian?" I've done lots and lots of body composition measurements on other people and I would like to understand just how you got that reading on a person such as myself when I know how much I exercise and what I eat."

At which point he quickly said,"Well, I was just going to shave a few points off of that number and tell you that you're probably more like 27% fat."

Interesting. According to his machine I was in desperate need of his services until I asked him for some science to back up his claim, at which point I suddenly didn't look so bad.

I left the gym thinking how fortunate I was to (1) have enough knowledge to know when I was being scammed and (2) to have enough self-esteem to not be devastated by this poor attempt at marketing a service to me I didn't really need. But…I continued to think about how many women reading this blog might not have either, and who might be driven into some pretty dysfunctional and dangerous behaviors when delivered this kind of news.

A word of caution: any apparatus that claims to measure your body fat using a technique called"bioelectrical impedance" is likely to be grossly inaccurate. Those are the handy little machines you hold for a few seconds while they estimate your body water and work backwards to figure out how much of what is left, is fat. If you are at all dehydrated…you'll look fatter on those machines than you really are.

If it's really important to you to get a body fat measurement, the most accurate way to get them done is using a very inconvenient, high-maintenance technique called underwater weighing. If you can get this done, go for it! If you can't, make sure you find a trained exercise professional who can do a caliper reading. Good caliper technicians can come pretty close to underwater weighing.

You can also measure inches--waist circumference, hip circumference, thigh, arm, etc. It can be really helpful on those weeks when you may be plateauing on the scales to see that your waist is continuing to shrink.

In my case, it turned out that I'd gained 3 pounds of weight since I'd last weighed, but all my pants and skirts were fitting exactly the same, likely meaning I'd gained some muscle in my upper body. I chose to be excited about that rather than let the used car salesman…er…personal trainer…ruin my day.

Be sure you focus on the right reasons for exercising and do it for the fact that you sleep better, have more energy, and are helping to balance your hormones, not because you're making money for someone else who doesn't deserve to have it.

Normally I wouldn't promote a show like this on a blog like this, but a recent client shared that last season a woman was diagnosed with PCOS after competing. She happens to be someone who really struggled with weight loss during the competition. My client shared with me, that she remembered thinking when hearing about the PCOS diagnosis,"Wow, if a show of experts can't even help someone like me, I don't have much hope."

Until that conversation, I'd kept my thoughts about this show primarily to myself, but realizing it may be important to provide hope to a segment of the population for whom this show may not be entirely productive…I've decided to make it a regular blog entry throughout this season of Biggest Loser.

And, I have a team of experts to help! The contributors to this blog will be taking turns sharing their thoughts, expertise, and insights. We'll be so much better at this with all of these viewpoints than if it was just me. I hope you enjoy our little series.

Now, about Episode One.

I'm going to use my turn to talk about something that has bothered me since the show's inception--how"progress" is described. Weight loss is the only measurement used in this competition. And it is never mentioned, anywhere, anytime, that weight consists of several things: fat, muscle, water, glycogen (how carbohydrate is stored) and bone, primarily.

At one point in the show, Jillian was showing how the Body Bugg works. She stated that the calories burned in a typical day are about 3,000. One pound of fat equals 3,500 calories. So if we use her statement and calculate out a week, the average Biggest Loser contestant burns 21,000 calories in one week. That works out to about 6 pounds. Any loss over that is coming primarily from water and possibly even muscle.

In my exercise physiology program, we learned that different fuels are burned at different intensities. The more intense the exercise, the more likely it is that fat is not being burned. At high exercise intensities, the body switches to burning carbohydrate, which it gets from breaking down glycogen. Each gram of glycogen is stored with 3 grams of water. So at the intensities I saw in this episode (which involved working so hard that some people literally fell off of treadmills while others retreated to corners to vomit), my guess is that fat is not what was burned.

Remember, this is a commercial television show that depends on ratings. Higher weight losses draw in bigger audiences and more advertising dollars, so what are you going to do to get there if time only permits a"measly" 6 pounds a week of weight loss? You're going to do what it takes to purge as much water and glycogen out of the body as you possibly can. I realize purging is a bad pun given the fact that people were throwing up, but it leaves me wondering if the trainers are truly aiming for health, or if they are focused on goals outside of the welfare of the contestants.

It seems to me, especially since two contestants this season aren't even cleared to fully exercise because of medical risk, that there would be some sort of attention paid to calculating target heart rates and staying in the AEROBIC range in order to maximize loss of body FAT. But then my goal would be the long term health of the person I'm working with, not my professional reputation in a televised weight loss competition.

When working with women with PCOS, I always have to keep in mind that they hit the top of their aerobic range at lower levels of exercise intensity than other women. They tend to be those clients who exercise harder and longer than anyone else…only to gain weight. It is one of the hardest things I do in this kind of work, to convince my clients to trust that if they drop the intensity, it will help to facilitate the right kind of weight loss. Especially when competitions like this one push for the exact opposite mentality.

But the wall these contestants always hit a few weeks into the season? It's about having completely run out of glycogen to purge, muscle weight gain that is occurring at the same time fat is lost, and more rapidly if target exercise heart rates are not respected.

If the measurements used to calculate progress were a combination of weight AND a body fat measurement from which total muscle gained and total fat lost were factored in, you'd see very different results. You'd probably also see a lot higher self-esteem in the contestants and fewer contestants trying to throw the weigh-ins with water loading when they start to panic about whether or not their hard work will show up on the scale.

If you're one of those people who tends to lose weight slowly or even gain weight when you feel like you've really worked hard, try this.

1. Calculate your target heart rate as follows.
-Subtract your current age from 220. This is your maximum heart rate.
-Multiply your maximum heart rate by.6, and then by.8.
-The numbers you get when you do that are the lower and upper heart rates
you need to be in, in order to be most efficiently burning fat.

2. The next time you exercise, stop a few times and take your pulse. If your heart rate is exceeding the upper limit of your target heart range, you need to drop your exercise intensity.

Many women I've challenged to do this are very surprised at how less intensely they need to exercise. And how much more pleasant exercising can be when it doesn't have to entail losing your lunch in front of a crowd of people.

I recently wrote about my experience with a personal trainer at a local gym, and the interaction we had about my doubt about the body fat number he measure for me.

Yesterday I was at another location of the same gym, waiting for yoga class to start. Another personal trainer walked by with the same apparatus, and asked if anyone wanted to have their measurement taken.

I volunteered, and I got the same inflated measurement they gave me before. Again…I told him I had two degrees in nutrition and fitness-related fields, that I'd managed an exercise testing laboratory during graduate school, and the numbers simply were not consistent with what I knew about my exercise level and my body type.

Again, he backed off and gave me a lower estimate that was almost exactly what the other trainer had given when I put pressure on him.

It's not about vanity. I actually went shopping for jeans right after yoga class and discovered that with all of my exercise over the past year I've DROPPED a size.

It's about what looks to be a scam on the part of gyms--to give you an inflated body fat measurement in an attempt to sell you personal training sessions.

Don't fall for it.

If you MUST have your body fat measurement taken, have it done by someone who has no financial gain to derive from overestimating your actual number. And/or…have it performed by two different people employed by two different organizations.

I've had this conversation with two different clients recently and it occurred to me it's a phenomenon likely to be more common in women with PCOS, because of their focus on carbohydrates, than even the average dieter. Figured a blog post would be helpful to others.

Both of these clients shared with me that they went on low carbohydrate diets and did very well on them, until a few weeks into it, when, for whatever reason, they"fell off" the plan and started eating carbohydrates. And within a few days they'd gained a few pounds and felt more than a little discouraged…not to mention bloated.

Here's a little fact you don't often hear in weight loss advice or discussions. Not all weight that you gain, or lose, is fat. Some of it is water. Some of it can even be bone, if you severely restrict your intake for long periods of time, as with an eating disorder.

And some of that weight…can be your own body's carbohydrate stores.

When you are eating enough food to meet your daily needs, your body stores some of it as carbohydrate, in liver and in muscles. The function of this stored carbohydrate, is to help keep your blood sugar levels high at times when no food is directly coming into the system. Your brain relies almost entirely on carbohydrates to function, and the body has evolved with this"storage tank", so to speak, to be sure the brain never, ever runs out of energy.

Carbohydrate that is stored for this purpose is called glycogen. The body uses water to help store glycogen. And for every gram of carbohydrate you store, there are 3 grams of water alongside of it.

So what do you think happens when you suddenly switch to a low-to-non carbohydrate diet? All of the carbohydrate you've stored in your liver and muscles has to break down in order to keep your brain running. The weight loss is rapid, because you're losing 3 times as much water as you are other weight. It feels good when you look on the scales, because we're so cultured to believe that all weight shifts are coming from fat.

And what do you think happens when you eat carbohydrate again? The weight shift moves in the opposite direction, and 3/4 of what you gain is actually water. But again, because you're likely focused on fat if you're dieting…you visualize that what you've gained is more of that stuff.

Have you ever heard of carbohydrate loading, that athletes do before an endurance event? When you diet and bounce back with a high carb binge, that's exactly what you're doing! Here's a description off of the Internet that describes a carbohydrate loading protocol, from the Mayo Clinic website:
■Step 1. About a week before the event, reduce or maintain your carbohydrate intake at about 50 to 55 percent of your total calories. Increase protein and fat intake to compensate for any decrease in carbohydrates. Continue training at your normal level. This helps deplete your carbohydrate stores and make room for the loading that comes next.

■Step 2. Three to four days before the event, increase your carbohydrate intake to 70 percent of your daily calories — or about 4.5 grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight. Cut back on foods higher in fat to compensate for the extra carbohydrate-rich foods. Also scale back your training to avoid depleting your glycogen stores. Rest completely for a day before the event. And…no big surprise…here, farther down the page, are the potential risks associated with this protocol:

■Weight gain. Much of this weight is extra water — but if it hampers your performance, you're probably better off skipping the extra carbs.

■Digestive discomfort. You may need to avoid or limit some high-fiber foods one or two days before your event. Beans, bran and broccoli can cause gassy cramps, bloating and loose stools when you're loading up on carbohydrates.

■Blood sugar changes. Carbohydrate loading can affect your blood sugar levels. It's a good idea to consult your doctor or a registered dietitian before you start carbohydrate loading, especially if you have diabetes I remember when I was working on my master's degree in exercise science, we were taught that the bloating and weight gain from carbohydrate loading could be so extreme and uncomfortable, that athletes should not even attempt to use it for a crucial race if they had not tested it out prior to know how their body would react.

So see, it's not your body, your PCOS, or anything weird about YOU that causes you to gain weight when you eat after restricting. It's exactly how ANYONE's body will react when pushed to extremes.

Try living somewhere in the middle, with a moderate, healthy carbohydrate intake…and see what it does for your weight, your body, and the bloating.

Yup, you heard it here.
Nope, I’m not telling you to ditch the exercise.
I’m encouraging you to be sure you’re balancing exercise with rest, and not overtraining.
If you’re trying to lose weight, your focus is likely on losing fat. That’s a nice goal, and I’m guessing you’ll feel better about what you see when you look in the mirror if that results from your exercise, but it’s not really the main reason you’re exercising for PCOS.
You need to gain muscle. The more muscle mass you have, the harder it is to be insulin resistant. The act of exercise actually breaks muscle down. It rebuilds during periods of rest. It’s the balance of exercise and rest that matters, way more, than how many hours of exercise you’re actually doing.
It can be a vicious cycle to break out of, because insulin resistance itself actually breaks down muscle. So if it’s been awhile since you’ve actively exercised, and you’re not losing weight the way you’d hoped you would when you committed to the gym, consider that your ratio of muscle to fat is not high enough. Your priority, first and foremost, is to build and maintain that muscle.
Focusing too much on losing fat and overtraining in the process… will undermine your progress.
Exercising too late in the evening, getting up too early in the morning to get to the gym (it’s not uncommon to hear women say they’re up at 3 am to fit in the workout), or simply working out so much and so hard that you’re not sleeping well… are all easy ways to sabotage your success.
Things you need to keep in mind:
You need to eat enough protein so that your body builds muscle mass while you're not active.
2. You need to sleep enough so that you don’t promote insulin resistance.
3. You need to not push yourself so hard that you’ve stopped burning fat—monitor your heart rate!
4. You need to vary the workouts so all muscle groups are involved and have a chance to build up. Also, you need to develop the confidence to trust that PROACTIVE exercising, as opposed to REACTIVE exercising, is your path to success. Too often women with PCOS weigh themselves in the morning and if the weight is not what they want to see, react by doubling, even tripling their scheduled workout time in order to “get control” of the situation.
When you’re exercising with the goal of building muscles to reduce insulin resistance, you understand that overtraining is your enemy. You create an exercise plan that perhaps you even map out on your calendar, that you commit to regardless of how you’re feeling or what the scales says. For example, I just mapped out my spring training schedule. One of my friends and I have decided we’re going to take tennis lessons. We both own businesses, and committing to this ensure that we actually get out and move. I also love to swim, and it’s one way I can stay active as the weather in Arizona gets warm. And, I’ve been wanting to bump up my elliptical workouts and try spin classes. So, for the next three months, on my calendar, every fourth day, I’ve written “tennis”, every fourth day “spin”, every fourth day “swim”… and then I schedule a day off. It’s right there in my planner so when I start scheduling meetings and accepting social invitations, I only schedule in a way that does not take away from that commitment to myself. I varied the exercise to give my different muscle groups a rest, and to give me enough variety to not get bored.
And don’t get me wrong… I do relish the day off! We all need a little bit of laziness, sleeping in, and getting caught up. I find, personally, if I don’t have the day off, I have trouble sleeping and I have trouble keeping up with the appetite. I have designed this program to fit with the way I’ve learned my body works. If I like spin, I’ll keep it, or I may prioritize swimming during the heat of the summer. We’ll see. I kind of need to mix it up over time to stay interested.
The point of this post is, the reactive and self-punitive approach many of you have toward exercise, because of your focus on reducing body fat, is your absolute biggest enemy. Focus on building muscle, even though it may mean seeing your weight increase on occasion. It’s reflecting muscle, not fat, and it’s a good sign.
Muscle, muscle, muscle!

I've invited the members of our Facebook fan page to ask questions, and here is the first one we got. Here is a little primer on triglycerides.

When you get your cholesterol reading, something that is measured is a type of fat called a triglyceride. What this is, is a type of fat the body uses to carry extra calories in the blood. If you're eating calories in greater quantities than the liver can process them, they hang around in your blood waiting in line to be taken care of. Sometimes that gets measured in a blood test, because high triglycerides are associated with increased risk of heart disease.

Triglycerides' favorite place to be stored, is in the belly, which is why people with high triglycerides often have an apple-shaped body type.

And what is really interesting about high triglycerides, is that they are a place your body can store DHA, that chemical you see me write a lot about here, because it is essential for healthy memory, problem solving, and overall brain function.

Modern medicine tends to think of high triglycerides as a problem that needs to be fixed. I tend to think of high triglycerides as a strong indicator that your life and eating habits are out of balance. They respond extremely well to pulling yourself back into moderation; therefore, I strongly encourage you to take a look at the list of changes you can make, summarized here, and give them your best college try before resorting to medication.

1. Excess calories, in general, all day long. If you are a compulsive overeater, your intake may simply exceed your body's ability to keep up. You don't need to starve yourself, however. Rather, start to explore the reasons why food is so prevalent in your life, begin to tackle the reasons why, replace triglycerides with other activities and coping behaviors that are not so hard on your liver.

2. Stacking too many calories at one time of day. Are you on Weight Watchers…with a tendency to deny yourself food earlier in the day so you can indulge later on? Your liver is not much different from the engine in your car. You can't simply dump fuel into the system and expect it to run efficiently. Your car has a carburetor to regulate the rate at which the engine gets gasoline. When it starts to run too rich, your engine doesn't run well. The only carburetor humans have is a behavioral one…remember, it isn't just about how many calories you eat in the course of a day. It's how you spread them out to up your liver's efficiency.

3. Eating too much sugar. Sugar is so quickly and easily absorbed, that eating too much of it can leave too many calories in the system at once. You still need carbohydrates to fuel your brain and muscle, but the other type of carburetor you have is something called a complex carbohydrate. It takes longer to absorb and digest, therefore slowing down the entrance of those carbs into your system. In general, low glycemic foods also help triglycerides. You know what those are from paying attention to insulin resistance. Eat more of them!

4. Drinking too much alcohol. Alcohol has 7 calories per gram, and it adds up quickly! We don't talk much about alcohol here, but if you are using it to cope, and you have a love of sweetened drinks, you're getting a double whammy. Alchohol is best used in moderation and best used as an accompaniment to a healthy meal. Happy hour drinking, which encourages less control over high fat, high calorie foods, is likely to render you vulnerable to higher triglyceride readings.

5. Not getting enough"effective" omega-3 in your diet. I use the word effective to remind you that if all you do is add omega-3 to your diet without reducing omega-6, the latter will keep the former from having any effect. You have to do both. Physicians will often tell you that the dose of omega-3 you need is too high to be safe, and that you need medication in order to achieve this. I beg to differ, as I have seen, many times, that when you add the fish and fish oil, and reduce the"s" and"c" oils, triglycerides do drop. I have come to believe that since DHA is so important for brain function, when our omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is so high that the brain starts to be at risk for having what it needs to do its job, the body starts creating triglycerides as a desperate attempt to hang on to what omega-3 it has. When you don't need triglycerides as a last-ditch effort, your body won't have to make them.

6. Not enough exercise. One of the benefits of physical activity is that because it requires you to use calories as fuel, it trains your body to use calories. So when you eat them, your body is more likely to use them efficiently. Get out and move, even a little bit at first, but get in the habit!

7. Of course, there are people with genetically high triglycerides who DO need to be on medication. But if you have not tried the suggestions listed above in an attempt to reduce your triglycerides, please try them first before adding another medication to your lineup. And if you do decide to use medication, don't use that as an excuse to eat whatever you want. Eating as best as you can, can help to reduce the amount of medication you DO need to manage your problem.

Why aren't these contestants losing weight?

I wish, when plateaus hit, that there would be a little more education. My counseling experience has taught me that plateaus, if not fully understood, can be demoralizing and demotivating. It can tempt a person pursuing weight loss to give up altogether.

Some of the things I wish you all had heard last night:

1. One of the training effects of exercise is that your body gets better at storing fuel to use during exercise. One of those fuels is glycogen. Every gram of glycogen is stored with 3 grams of water. Glycogen is not fat, it's a form of carbohydrate. If you're starting to store more glycogen at the same time you're losing fat, the weight gain can offset the weight loss.

2. The more obvious training effect is that you are also gaining muscle. Gaining muscle while losing fat can negate what the scale shows.

In other words, not all weight is fat. Not all weight loss is fat loss, and not all weight gain is fat gain.

One of the contestants, after seeing her weekly results, stated that she believed that her body was not accepting the exercise.

Au contraire, madame!

If you're gaining muscle and developing a capacity to store more fuel, which ultimately allows you to be more active, your body is alive and well and responding to your hard work in a very healthy way.

The goal of this show is to lose fat and gain muscle, is it not? Then why do they only focus on one when it comes to measuring?

I'm not surprised at the number of people who choose the"healthy" versions of things they know are normally not so healthy, based solely on an eye-catching blurb on the front of a package. Things like “trans-fat-free” flavored non-dairy creamer, or chocolate chip cookies “made with whole grains.” And are they really trans-fat-free or made with whole grains? Most of us won't even turn the package around to read the ingredients and find out what that means.

If there's a big graphic on the front with the words"0 grams trans fat per serving" most people will see that and think,"Perfect. I know trans fats are a bad thing, not sure what it is but I'm glad my favorite hazelnut flavored creamer doesn't have it!" And off they go. What they didn’t notice is that the second ingredient on the back was “partially hygrogenated oil” which is – you guessed it – trans fat. The serving size is a teaspoon. Can most of you who use flavored creamers honestly say that you take out a measuring teaspoon and put just that much into your coffee? If you’re like most people I know, you either pour some into your coffee until the color is right (definitely more than a teaspoon), or you use multiple single-serve packets wherever you get your coffee. The loophole is that if it’s less than 0.5g per serving, they can claim it’s got 0 trans fat. So the serving is tiny, not true to what most people actually use.

Same goes with other things like Goldfish crackers. Ooooh! It peeves me so! I was at Target doing some shopping and they have monster-sized bags of Goldfish crackers on sale. And not just any Goldfish crackers. The ones that are"made with whole grains". So here you are, trying to make small changes, since that is what you keep hearing is the easiest to do. A small change might be to find a healthier alternative to the little Goldfish you snack on mindlessly after work every evening. And holy crap! Here’s a “whole grain” version – that’s healthy! Right? Wrong.

Yes. the ingredient panel on the back lists"100% whole grain flour" as the first ingredient, but I took one down the aisle to where the regular Goldfish crackers were to compare. There really wasn't much of a difference – marginal at best. The “healthier” version has about 10 calories less per serving (1 serving is 55 Goldfish for both kinds). It also has 1 gram more of fiber per serving, so from 1 gram in the original, up to a whopping 2 grams in the healthier version. Though it has less fat, it has more saturated fat. And the “healthier” version also has more sodium. So really, is it any better, cumulatively? Not really, though I can hear Goldfish fanatics justifying that extra gram of fiber and 10 less calories to death. It’s still a highly-processed junky food, trying to weasel its way back into your home since chances are if you’re like many Americans, you’re trying to eat healthier.

Food labels are a tricky little business, and if you think the label is there to help you, the consumer, you’re in for a rude awakening. That's just what the food companies want you to believe. At the end of the day, everything they put on a label is carefully thought out, with their bottom line at the top of the priority list. International Delights and Pepperidge Farms (and soooo many others) don’t want to lose you as a customer so they figure, if you’re wising (wisening?) up about nutrition, they’ll play to your new level of nutrition knowledge and keep you around with misleading serving size loopholes and a trivial amount of whole grains in some of their junk products.

Here are some terms to keep in mind when you’re at the store:

• “Zero Grams Trans Fat Per Serving” – hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils – of any kind – are trans fats. If these words appear on an ingredient list, feel free to call B.S. on the “zero grams” claim. Also look at your serving size and see if that is truly what you use.

  This goes for “Fat Free” as well. Remember if it’s less than 0.5 gram of fat per serving they can get away with saying it’s fat free. But if you use multiple times what the recommended serving size is, you’re gonna have to accept that it’s not truly fat-free – this is huge for people trying to lose weight, as the calories will add up faster than you think!

• “Made with Whole Grains” – First ask yourself is it really made with 100% whole grains? Then compare to the original and see if they’re BS-ing you with trivial differences that add up to nothing other than money in the bank for the company.
• “All Natural” – this is not a regulated claim, and any company can use this phrase and interpret their own meaning of what is “natural”. If you find ingredients on the nutrition panel that sure as heck don’t sound natural, well then…
• “No added sugar” – look for other sources of sugar that aren’t literally “sugar” like brown rice syrup, evaporated cane juice, fruit juice concentrate, and also keep an eye out for artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols (aspartame, sucralose, sorbitol, maltitol, lactitol… etc.
• “Made with natural sugar” – Hey, that’s great. But you know what? Sugar is sugar, and too much of it, “natural” or otherwise is not going to add up to anything good in the long run. All your body knows when you put the food in your mouth is, “HEY!!!! Sugar!!! Now it’s a party!” Sugar in moderation won’t kill most people, but somehow, telling someone that it’s “natural” sugar or “raw” sugar, suddenly makes it ok to eat more. And that won’t necessarily save lives, either. Be smart about it.
• “Zero Calories / Calorie-Free” – Like with fats, if it has less than 5 calories per serving, the food company can get away with saying it has zero calories per serving. Rule of thumb is to consider all those zero-calorie items to have 4 calories. And as you might have heard, calories can add up rather quickly. Knowing that, if you’re drinking quite a bit of these zero-calorie beverages, or using multiple servings of zero-calorie salad dressing, you may be motivated to change your ways, if you’re actively counting calories (which I would hope would be the only reason you’re eating and drinking those kinds of things!).

  A special note about Splenda – “The Zero Calorie Sweetener” It’s about 2 calories per little yellow packet. And they can add up very quickly if you’re putting Splenda into everything.

Note: I've received quite a few compliments about this blog post. It was written and published without a single edit by Sarah Jones. Sarah is currently a nutrition student and Arizona State University and has been interning with me over this academic year. The attention to detail you see here is just how Sarah does things. I'm very lucky to have her, and glad she has shared such a timely topic in such a wonderful post. Thanks, Sarah!

You may have noticed that vitamin D has been a hot topic in the media lately and, at this point, it is likely that we as consumers are becoming overwhelmed by all the media hype. Recent studies have suggested that in prehistoric times, in addition to normal skeletal development, humans probably used vitamin D as a natural form of sunscreen. Before majoring in Dietetics, my basic knowledge of the role vitamin D played in the body is that it somehow worked with calcium to promote healthy bones. As it turns out, I had no idea how complex the relationship actually was between vitamin D and the human body! Let’s take a further look at vitamin D. Most of us may know vitamin D as the “sunshine vitamin.” We get it from the sun, right? Sure, but how? When ultraviolet light from the sun shines on a cholesterol compound in our skin, it is transformed into a vitamin D “precursor” (compounds that can be converted into active vitamins that the body can use) and is absorbed directly into the blood. The liver and kidneys finish converting the precursor to the active form of vitamin D. There are two major forms of vitamin D; these are vitamin D₂ (ergocalciferol), which is present in plants, and vitamin D₃ (cholecalciferol), which is present in the skin of animals. Vitamin D was discovered in 1920 and was originally classified as a vitamin. However, it has since been revealed that vitamin D is actually a hormone (steroid) since it can be synthesized by the body when exposed to sunlight. Essentially, the major biologic function of vitamin D is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus in our bodies, which aids in the absorption of calcium and helps to form and maintain strong bones. Vitamin D₃ is the most active form of the vitamin, which is what you will see in most supplements. Obtaining vitamin D from sunlight presents no risk of vitamin D toxicity because the body is able to regulate the vitamin D precursor – see what I mean about complex! But, as we know, getting too much sun puts us at risk for skin cancer. Since moving to Arizona, I have started wearing sunscreen everyday to decrease my risk of skin cancer, but sunscreen can reduce or prevent the synthesis of vitamin D. And, because vitamin D is one of the most toxic of all the vitamins, taking supplements can put us at risk for toxicity. Now you may be thinking, I wear sunscreen, I am concerned about supplementing without first consulting my doctor, and I live in an area that does not get much sunlight during this time of year, what foods can I eat that have vitamin D in them? As far as foods are concerned, dietary vitamin D is provided primarily by foods of animal origin, especially liver, beef and eggs (mainly the yolk). You can also find vitamin D in dairy products such as milk, cheese and butter. Lastly, vitamin D is in some saltwater fish, including tuna, salmon, herring and sardines. Because few foods naturally have substantial vitamin D content, i n the United States there are pre-selected foods, such as milk, cheese, margarine and yogurt as well as some orange juice, bread, and cereals that have been fortified with vitamin D. If you are a vegetarian, you likely will not be obtaining vitamin D by eating liver, beef or fish, but you may still be eating eggs and dairy products. I mentioned yogurt as a source of vitamin D, but after a trip to the grocery store and looking at no less than ten brands of yogurt, I was stumped! I was hard pressed to find yogurts that have been fortified with vitamin D. However, it was not a complete loss, as I eventually spotted one (which also happens to be one of my favorite brands). Stonyfield Organic Yogurt has fortified most of their yogurt products with vitamin D₃. Here is a list from their labels of the “percent of daily values based on a 2,000 calorie diet”: Organic Fat Free Smooth and Creamy 6 oz (all flavors): 20% of D₃ Organic Fat Free Fruit on the Bottom 6 oz (all flavors): 15% of D₃ Organic Low Fat Smooth and Creamy 6 oz (all flavors): 20% of D₃ Organic Low Fat Fruit on the Bottom 6 oz (all flavors): 15% of D₃ Their soy and Greek yogurt’s do not have vitamin D, but they also make six and ten ounce organic smoothies that contain vitamin D. Additionally, they have two other products that are worth mentioning: “B-Healthy and B-Well.” B-Healthy includes omega-3 fatty acids, as well as three of the B vitamins ( B₃ or Niacin, B₅ or Panthothenic Acid and B12). B-Well contains vitamin B₆, probiotic cultures and vitamin D. According to their website, if you live in the Phoenix area, Stonyfield Organic Yogurt can be found at: Bashas’, AJ’s Fine Foods and Sprouts Farmers Market.

References

I was recently graciously shipped a jar of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Standard Virgin coconut oil for review. First of all, thank you to Tropical Traditions for their generosity! I use coconut oil twice a day on my skin and I love the noticeable difference it makes. I'm also learning to cook with it, and am happy to have this to work with.

This is a long, drawn out post. I'm putting my conclusion at the very beginning so you can decide if you want to sit through the rest:

I love coconut oil, I use it myself, both in cooking and on my skin. I love this particular brand and product, and it's clear that the company is very proud of the attention they devote to quality and sustainable practices. If you choose to incorporate coconut oil into your cooking, and I hope that you do, please consider supporting a company that works so hard on behalf of integrity.

My intention is to encourage more people to use coconut oil than currently do. It wasn't long ago that we discouraged coconut oil consumption and I still encounter people who think it's unhealthy. I'd also like to encourage those who may be creating problems with excessive use, to understand why that may not be a good choice.

My only reservation is that there is somewhat of a health halo hanging over coconut oil that encourages its use in quantities that potentially do not support improved health.

I'll be addressing those issues in this post.
A little bit of feedback on the coconut oil information I found on the website.

In the FAQ section, there is no peer-reviewed reference provided to support the following statement:

The benefits of coconut oil are mainly from the nutrient value of medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs). The best comparison in nature as to the percentage of MCFAs being consumed in a diet is human breast milk. To equal the amount of MCFAs a nursing infant would receive in one day, an adult would need to consume about 3.5 tablespoons of coconut oil a day according to researchers.

1. With regards to fat, what an infant needs, nutritionally, is far different from what an adult needs.

For example, nutrition experts recommend 2% milk for children up to to years of age, then a drop to 1% or skim. The reason for this recommendation is that the extra fat is needed during the first 2 years of life to help fuel the rapid growth occurring during that time. As growth and development slow, so do needs for dietary fat.

Arachidonic acid (ARA) is an essential fatty acid for infants. The only place they can get it is milk, so if an infant is formula fed, ARA needs to be added to that formula. When that infant is weaned, however, and can get this fatty acid elsewhere, it no longer needs to be added to the diet.

It simply has not been proven that nutritional needs for infants are the same as nutritional needs for adults. Or that what you would feed an infant is even healthy for an adult. So I'm not entirely convinced that the extrapolation from an infant's saturated fat intake in breast milk, to a recommendation for adults of 3.5 tablespoons per day is a logical or healthy leap. (I am happy to adjust my stance if peer-reviewed research supporting the higher level becomes available. Our readers are in large part pursuing fertility and possibly in the midst of infertility treatment. I owe it to these high-risk situations to lean toward the skeptical and conservative. I don't want to heap more expense, stress, and/or disappointment on women who take our advice so seriously.)

Fat is fat, no matter where it comes from, it still contains calories, and the recommendations are still to keep saturated fat intake to about 10% of total calories. Regardless of the source of the saturated fat.

I did a long blog post calculating dietary amounts for different calorie levels that this translates to not too long ago if you want more specifics. I do think that when possible, saturated fat from coconut oil is better than saturated fat from meat, so the focus needs to be learning how to make that switch. (See the recipes I posted below.)

2. In moderate quantities, coconut oil can definitely be beneficial. A 2009 Brazilian study providing 1 tbsp per day of coconut oil to a group of women with abdominal obesity found that compared to 1 tbsp of soybean oil, the coconut oil group had higher HDL, a lower LDL/HDL ratio, and a reduced waist circumference. It cannot be determined from this study design if the change was due to the absence of soybean oil, the presence of coconut oil, or a little of both, but it does illustrate that when used in moderation, coconut oil can be part of a hormone-friendly eating program.

3. What IS showing up in the literature is that too much coconut oil can be metabolically deleterious. Individuals at risk for diabetes (and if you have PCOS that means you) need to use coconut oil with care. One recent study in particular (done with calves) compared coconut oil to a non-medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) diet as well as to another MCT, caprylate oil. The coconut oil-fed calves weighed pretty much the same at the end of the study, contradicting claims that coconut oil promotes weight loss. In addition, the coconut oil calves had heavier, fattier livers and contained 15% more fat than the livers of the other calves.

Bottom line, used respectfully, coconut oil has many health benefits and I do encourage its use. What I DO discourage, is using this product indiscriminately with the belief that it has any kind of magical quality that counteracts dietary indiscretions or which somehow allows you to ignore other important rules of nutritional balance.

4. I spent a long time on the company's companion website, http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/ to see how others were using coconut oil in cooking. Most of the recipes were for baked goods and sweets, the use of which, due to the insulin resistance issue the readers of this blog deal with, should be limited. Cakes, cookies, etc., are not nutritionally dense and cannot be eaten in large quantities just because of the oil they were made with.

I did find a great recipe for coconut oil vinaigrette coleslaw, which nicely combines the concept I've been writing about recently, consuming a bit of vinegar before meals, with a nice, moderate use of coconut oil. I would so love to see more savory recipes like this, as it would help the readers inCYST most often works with, to use this oil to their benefit.

I did my best to walk the walk, as well, and asked the members of our Facebook fan page to share any savory recipes they might have using coconut oil. Here are a few provided by culinary school graduate Alyssa Fritts.

Coconut Green Beans
Blanch fresh green beans by dumping them in boiling water for about 20-30 seconds. Strain them out and put them in ice water to s top the cooking. Melt a tsp or less of coconut oil in a pan. Add 1/2 clove of garlic and the strained green beans, toss around a few times. Add chopped almonds and salt and pepper to taste.

Coconut Pork Chops
Put a little bit of coconut oil in a pan, salt and pepper pork chop with all fat trimmed Brown on both sides. Remove chop, add garlic, and chopped onion. Saute until garlic is fragrant. Add veggie or chicken stock and a LITTLE bit of apple jui ce. Put chop back in and let it reduce down by about half. Remove chop and place on plate. Add a scoop of stone ground mustard, and a sprig of fresh rosemary. Let it thicken. Finish with a swirl of coconut oil to give it the smooth fullness butter would. Pour over your chop.

Miso-Ginger Salmon
1/2 tsp coconut oil
1 clove minced garlic
1/8 in piece peeled ginger in matchsticks
1 tbs chopped onion
1 tsp miso paste
1/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup veggie stock or water
1/4 tsp coconut oil

Melt 1/2 tsp coconut oil in pan. Salt and pepper salmon. Place in pan skin side up. Brown on both sides. Set aside on a plate. If needed as a tiny bit more coconut oil. Add ginger and garlic. Add onion and sautee for a few seconds. Add wine and stock. Add salmon back to pan and cook for about 5 min. Remove salmon and turn heat up to high. Add miso and reduce down until thick. Swirl in a tiny bit (up to 1/4 tsp) of coconut oil and pour over salmon.

What Alyssa is illustrating, beautifully, is that one of the best ways to use coconut oil is to switch out other oils for coconut oil in your regular cooking, being careful with quantities just as you would any other fat. It adds a nice flavor while it helps your metabolism.

If any of you use Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil, and you've developed some savory, hormone-friendly recipes you'd like to share with our friends at Tropical Traditions, I would love if you would do that. I'd like their customers to see just how much potential this oil can have in the kitchen. I'd really love to see this company, which clearly has a heart for wanting to do something good, succeed at that goal. I'm in love with the creativity of inCYST fans, and encourage you all to step up and share it in a way that can have benefit far outside of this blog post.

Bottom line: Used intelligently and respectfully, Tropical Traditions gets a thumbs up. Stay tuned, as tomorrow we're going to announce a giveaway encouraging you to think about and incorporate the concepts presented in this blog post!

Assunção ML, Ferreira HS, dos Santos AF, Cabral CR Jr, Florêncio TM. Effects of dietary coconut oil on the biochemical and anthropometric profiles of women presenting abdominal obesity. Lipids. 2009 Jul;44(7):593-601. Epub 2009 May 13.
Talbott, Shawn M. and Kerry Hughes. (2006). The Health Professional's Guide to Dietary Supplements. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. pp. 60–63. ISBN 9780781746724.

Mills JK, Ross DA, Van Amburgh ME. The effects of feeding medium-chain triglycerides on the growth, insulin responsiveness, and body composition of Holstein calves from birth to 85 kg of body weight. J Dairy Sci. 2010 Sep;93(9):4262-73.

One of the most difficult aspects of PCOS is what it does to your libido – your sexual fantasies and your desire to express your sexuality. Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down, and with PCOS, maybe a little of both at the same time. According to a recent University of Chicago study, fully 33.4% of women ages 18 – 59 suffer from hypoactive sexual desire, the technical name for low sexual desire. For PCOS women, the percentage is probably higher.

There’s certainly a range of what’s considered normal, but that’s a whole lot of women who just aren’t feeling like having sex. If you’re not having sex, alone or with a partner, or an active sexual fantasy life, you’re missing out on feelings of warmth, love, and connection that enhance your overall sense of well-being.

Some of the major factors affecting sexual desire include hormone levels, availability of a partner, and body confidence. We’re all familiar with the range of moods and symptoms that can accompany the menstrual cycle, and that’s just one part of what affects your sexual functioning. I hope that your endocrinologist, dietician, and gynecologist team are working closely with you to regulate your hormonal functioning. If they’re not, and you’re feeling a disturbing loss of sexual desire, please consult with them. Know that birth control pills and antidepressants (the SSRI variety), which are often prescribed to women with PCOS, can negatively affect libido. This isn’t always a necessary or unavoidable side effect of medication. There are often different medications you can switch to that may improve your level of desire while still effectively treating your symptoms.

Availability of a partner is an issue that may be addressed in many ways. First, consider what’s happening with your current partner, if you have one. Has PCOS brought you down to the point that you no longer feel sexy or attractive to your partner? Do you reject your partner’s advances? Do you hide when you go to bed? Good communication is a must in restoring balance to this aspect of your life. Your partner may very well be wondering what’s up with you, without realizing the complexity of what’s affecting your body and your mind when you have PCOS. If you don’t have a partner, do you want one? If not, and that’s a choice made for practical considerations, great. But if it’s a non-choice you defaulted into because you feel lousy about your appearance, read on.

Body confidence is a critical component of a woman’s sexual confidence, and confidence often leads to making investments in appearance, the willingness to make or accept sexual advances, and a boost in self-esteem that comes from knowing you’re doing your best to take care of yourself. I’m talking about the obvious stuff – the best diet you can mange (90% healthy/10% naughty), regular exercise (not the hard-body-oriented, workout until you’re half-dead stuff), a little yoga or meditation when you can, and some focused attention on how you present your body to the world everyday. Exercise alone will dramatically improve your confidence, and your belief in your body’s abilities. Just the experience of exposing your body to the world and not getting laughed out of the gym is a real confidence booster.

You will learn that the rest of the world isn’t really paying that much attention to the excess abdominal fat you loathe so much. You will learn that you actually like good food, and it makes your body feel more energetic. You will learn that there are a lot of clever ways to deal with the cosmetic issues associated with PCOS, and not all of them are painful or cost a fortune. And when you learn all of these things, through your own proactive experience of them, you may find that lack of sexual desire is a thing of the past. If it’s not, however, and you’ve tried to improve it, don’t be afraid to seek additional help from your physician or a counselor. You deserve a healthy, fully functioning level of sexual desire, whether you choose to use it or not!

Marissa Kent of Mission Viejo, California wrote a wonderful article about watermelon for her August newsletter. Be sure to check out the watermelon salad recipe at the bottom of the post!

In addition to being a dietitian specializing in eating disorders and a certified diabetes educator, Marissa loves food, cooking, and hanging out at her local farmer's market.

You can learn more about Marissa and her nutrition counseling services at http://www.marissakentnutrition.com/.

One of the most enjoyed fruits during the hot season is the watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), which originated
from Africa. Did you know a watermelon is 95% water, and there are more than 200 to 300 varieties grown
in the United States alone? Only about half a dozen of those varieties make it into your supermarket. There
is even a square shaped watermelon grown in Japan, so that it will fit into refrigerator shelves nicely and not
take up too much space.

Watermelons do grow from a vine, but the melon is on top of the ground. Growing a watermelon can be very demanding. They require a lot of sunlight, space, water, and nutrients.It takes about 90 days for a full mature watermelon. California’s peak season for watermelon is May – October, but in general you can buy watermelon throughout the year.

Picking a watermelon requires both talent and skill, or just pure luck. Ideally you want a firm, smooth melon
with a yellowish creamy-white underside where it touched ground. Ripe watermelons should have a healthy
sheen and a melon smell. One popular way of picking a watermelon is by knocking on the melon with your
knuckles and listening for a dull, hollow sound. The unripe melons have a higher pitched sound.

Most people prefer watermelons for the cool sweet refreshing taste, but little do they know a watermelon is filled with nutrition.

Nutrition values:

1 cup of diced watermelon:
50 calories
11 grams of carbohydrate
0.6 grams of fiber
9 grams of sugar
1 gram protein– (can you believe it!)
11 mg calcium
170 mg potassium– (helps you stay hydrated)
12.5 mg Vit. C
875 IU (International Units) Vit. A
6900 mcg (micrograms) lycopene — Wow!

Watermelon (as defined by its name) mostly consists of water. It’s a great source for keeping your body hydrated during this hot season. Most of the water will come out of your body through sweat or urination. This does not mean it is low in nutritional value!

The top 2 benefits of eating a watermelon are: 1) the values of vitamin A and 2) lycopene. Both of these are antioxidants. Antioxidants help protect the body from damage caused by free radicals (highly reactive and unstable molecules). Vitamin A aids in the building and strengthening of bones, soft tissue, skin, and mucous membranes. Lycopene is in the subcategory of Vitamin A, and has been shown in recent studies to have potential health benefits to reduce the risk of cancer! Watermelon contains potassium. Potassium helps trigger your heart’s squeeze of blood through your body. It also helps with reducing the amount of muscle cramps.

People with diabetes may be concerned with the sugar content of watermelon. However, other foods you eat with watermelon will reduce the impact on your blood sugar.

Glycemic index refers to how fast a specific carbohydrate (bread, rice, potato, fruits, etc… ) food raises the blood sugar within a given time. The glycemic index of a food can change when you eat a combination of nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fat). Watermelon (as defined by its name) mostly consists of water. It’s a great source for keeping your body hydrated during this hot season. Most of the water will come out of your body through sweat or urination. This does not mean it is low in nutritional value!

The top 2 benefits of eating a watermelon are: 1) the values of vitamin A and 2) lycopene. Both of these are antioxidants. Antioxidants help protect the body from damage caused by free radicals (highly reactive and unstable molecules). Vitamin A aids in the building and strengthening of bones, soft tissue, skin, and mucous membranes. Lycopene is in the subcategory of Vitamin A, and has been shown in recent studies to have potential health benefits to reduce the risk of cancer! Watermelon contains potassium. Potassium helps trigger your heart’s squeeze of blood through your body. It also helps with reducing the amount of muscle cramps.

People with diabetes may be concerned with the sugar content of watermelon. However, other foods you eat with watermelon will reduce the impact on your blood sugar.

Glycemic index refers to how fast a specific carbohydrate (bread, rice, potato, fruits, etc… ) food raises the blood sugar within a given time. The glycemic index of a food can change when you eat a combination of nutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fat).

For example, if you are eating a hamburger and then a slice of watermelon, that will decrease the time it takes to rise the sugar level. You may want to work with a dietitian to learn more about combining and preparing foods to achieve the lowest glycemic index levels in your meals.

The glycemic index of a watermelon is 72, which is high compared to the chart below. Most nonstarchy vegetables, legumes, high fiber fruits and grains, have a low glycemic index.

Here is a chart of the levels of the glycemic index:

 Low (good) glycemic index levels: 55 or less

 Medium glycemic index levels: 56–69

 High (bad) glycemic index levels: 70 or higher

In conclusion, the glycemic index of watermelon is high. If you stay within the recommended portion size (1 cup diced), your blood sugar will not be significantly affected. In addition, if you enjoy watermelon with a meal this will further balance blood sugar.

Enjoy picking out and eating your watermelon while we are still in summer!!!

Watermelon Summer Salad

Dressing:

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
1/4 cup minced shallots (1 large)
1 T honey
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Salad:

6 cups of baby arugula, washed
1/8 of a seedless watermelon, rind removed and cut into 1 inch cubes
12 oz of feta cheese, 1/2 inch diced
1/2 cup whole fresh mint leaves, julienned

Directions

Whisk together the orange juice, lemon juice and shallots, honey, salt and pepper. Slowly pour in the olive oil, whisking constantly to form an emulsion. If not using within an hour, store the vinaigrette covered in the refrigerator.

Place arugula, watermelon, feta, and mint in a large bowl. Drizzle with enough vinaigrette to coat the greens lightly and toss well. Taste and serve immediately

… only a “bad” choice. At least that’s the way I choose to look at it these days. I find that I’ve been able to maintain good health and normal weight the past few years after adopting a more realistic approach to the way I eat.

In the past I was a slave to the “all or nothing” mentality, and in the long-term it got me nowhere, though in the short term it seemed to produce results. If I was seeking fat loss, sure, the fat came off if I ate 100% “clean”, no treats, no cheats. Ever. Eventually, once I’d reached a goal (or a breaking point!) I’d end up overdoing it with whichever foods I’d declared off-limits. And after that, well… I would feel like I failed, and these things became part of my daily habits seemingly overnight once more. Sound familiar?

The truth is, foods like these were only “bad” for me when they were the foundation of my diet. These days, I choose to approach my eating habits in a more realistic way. I live in the real world, not some “perfect eaters Utopia” and, I love burgers, cookies, chocolate, and wine (among other foods commonly found on dieters’ Do-Not-Eat lists). At the same time though, I understand that these foods are not always the most nutritionally sound choices, and too much of any of them not only leads to less-than optimal health, they can provide way too many calories, possibly pushing my weight/body fat in the wrong direction.

So, I focus on having a strong and healthy foundation by eating primarily lean proteins, plenty of vegetables and fruits – essentially, foods that are more nutritionally balanced and promote good health. I re-labeled these other foods from bad foods to treats. The definition of the word"treat" in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is:"an especially unexpected source of joy, delight or amusement."

How do I do this? If there is a special occasion coming, and I know there will be something there that I consider an indulgence rather than the foods that make up my foundation, I will plan for that by keeping the rest of my meals leading up to that special occasion particularly healthy. If there is no special occasion, I will take note of my cravings throughout the week, and based on what my body is asking for, that weekend I’ll go out for a treat. Sometimes it’s as simple as a little frozen yogurt, or a cookie at Paradise Bakery. Sometimes I really want some pizza or a hamburger. Whatever it is, I make sure to honor that craving, enjoying the meal and then continue with my usual healthy diet. I guess you can call it a “common-sense” diet.

I can understand that this approach may not work for everyone, but it works for me more than any restrictive diet ever has. I was initially afraid to give this a shot, thinking I’d be tempted to just keep eating the “junky” stuff. Yet, here I am, pleasantly surprised that I was wrong. I have chosen to live a healthy life, and everything else has fallen into place around that choice.

We’d love to hear from those of you who have been successful at managing your weight while still being able to enjoy some of those foods that have a bad reputation…

Last week I had the opportunity to hear James May, the founder of Wisdom Natural Brands, based here in Phoenix, tell his story of how he became involved with developing the stevia industry. Below is a white paper he shared with us that is referenced and provides a lot of very interesting information. This is a business paper, not a scientific publication, but it does contain references that can get you started if you're looking for more information.

It's not just a sweetener, apparently it has some endocrine and appetite effects as well (may decrease your appetite for sugar), and a new study suggests it may help to improve memory.

Also, I'm providing a link to a brand new website, Stevia University, which is a resource for all things stevia. Be sure to bookmark it!

Stevia Rebaudiana Bertoni Prepared by James A. May and provided as an educational service by Wisdom Natural Brands
Stevia has been correctly framed as the promised sweetener that can help resolve many of the world's sweetener, obesity, and diabetes concerns. Stevia can also solve much of the poverty of the farmers in third world countries by giving them a cash crop to grow, even improving the productivity of their soil and the quality of their other crops.
Stevia can be the next generation of the world's most preferred steetener. Consumers are becoming even more excited as they learn that stevia extract was not originally a chemical invention targeted for a totally different purpose, such as a drug or insecticide, which, after it was tasted, became an artificial sweetener (1).
Stevia, in its various forms has always been a natural sweetener that also offers numerous health benefits. In its natural forms it has been in use in parts of South America for more than 1500 years and, as a high intensity sweetener, in Japan and Asia for over 35 years. (2) Millions of people have ingested stevia daily and there has never been a documented adverse reaction reported (3).
Modern consumers have joyful anticipation for increased use of this sweetener that does not cause fat storage, does not adversely affect blood sugar or blood pressure, reduces caries and gum disease, does no harm, is good for the human body and — can taste great — depending on the extraction methods utilized.
The Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) of the World Health Organization has studied and approved 9 of the numerous naturally occurring glycosides residing in stevia leaves to be safe for human consumption in high intensity sweeteners. They are: stevioside, rebaudioside A, rebaudioside B, rebaudioside C, rebaudioside D, rebaudioside F, dulcoside A, rubusoside, and steviolbioside. Any combination of these glycosides totaling a minimum of 95%, the balance being other components of the stevia leaf, meets the standard set.
HECFA refers to steviol glycosides rather than stevia glycosides in determining acceptable daily intake (ADI) amounts of 4 mg per kilogram of body weight. This provides a 100-fold safety factor, meaning the human body can handle 100 times this amount and still be within the safety limits. However, steviol is one of three metabolites (i.e. the breakdown aglycones being steviol, isosteviol, and a unit of glucose) of the stevia glycosides, therefore, this related to 12 mg of the naturally occurring stevia glycosides per kilogram of body weight. Stevia glycosides are broken down into the three metabolites by bacterial action in the intestinal tract. It is well documented that steviol and the other metabolites are entirely excreted from the body.
In a presentation of the recent science regarding stevia at the 2009 annual meeting of the Calorie Control Council, Claire C. Kruger, PhD, DABT, CEO of Spherix Incorporated, a biopharmaceutical company, reported that"Stevia glycosides have very low toxicity in animals and there is no evidence of risk in humans, including repeat dose systemic toxicity, carcinogenicity, developmental, or reproductive effects. The weight of evidence indicates that steviol glycosides are not genotoxic." She also reported that"Stevia extracts and steviol glycosides show no DNA damage in a broad array of in vitro and in vivo assay," and that the"safety of ingestion of steviol glycosides in hmans has been corroborated in clinical trials; measures of tolerance, body weight, clinical chemistry, hematology and urinalyis did not show any evidence of untoward effects." She reported that critical newly published studies (5) resolve questions about any untoward effects after long term repeated exposure to steviol glycosides.
The Proceedings of the 3rd Stevia Sumposium 2009, held in Belgium reported recent scientific studies that found that,"Stevioside (i.e. the combination of Stevia glyucosides- lowered glucose, insulin and cholesterol. It had no effect on triglycerides or glucose tolerance," and that it"inhibited atherosclerosis by reducing macrophage, oxidized LDL and lipids. Furthermore, stevioside treatment increased the smooth muscle area of the plaque. This increase, together with the reduction of macrophages resulted in an increase of the smooth muscle cell-to-macrophage ratio". The scientists concluded by stating that"this is the first report showing an association between stevioside treatment and increased adiponectin and insulin sensitivity, improved antioxidant defense and reduced atherosclerosis. The decrease of oxidized LDL by stevioside is particularly important in view of our recent observation that LDL is associated with metabolic syndrome components." (6) No allergic reactions to stevia have been reported (7).
A patent application submitted to the US Patent Office, dated February 17, 2011, makes several significant claims, as a result of their scientific research, pertaining to stevia and brain function."Thus to summarize, stevia extract enabled improved learning and memory performance, to a similar, or better, extent as a natural reference substance, ginkgo biloba, and a pharmaceutical positive control compound, rolipram. These data showed that stevia-treated mice not only learned better than other groups but also retained their memory for a longer time period." When the product was given to human subjects they reported that,"Cognitive function, alertness and the ability to focus on work are seen to improve." The product they used was make by cooking leaves in water and is basically the same product sold by SweetLeaf (R), as stevia concentrate, since 1982.
SweetLeaf Stevia Sweetener is the only commercially available stevia extract that is made with a revolutionary new technology that uses only cool purified water and a series of filters. All other brands, currently in the market, utilize old technology that incorporates various chemicals, solvents and alcohols, including ethanol and methanol. Because stevia extracts can be between 200 and 300 times sweeter than sugar, they must be blended with other ingredients utilized as a carrier to make them palatable as a table-top sweetener. While all other brands use a sugar product, SweetLeaf(R) uses inulin, extracted from chicory root, which is a natural soluble fiber and prebiotic, thus creating a sweetener that improve health and vitality. SweetLeaf (R) wass the first stevia brand in the United States to acienve the FDA GRAS (Generally Recognied As Safe) designation.
REFERENCES
1. Aspartame was developed in 1965 by GD Searle, a pharmaceutical company, to be a prescription only drug for peptic ulcers. After it was tasted the company began the process to obtain FDA acceptance as a sweetener,which was achieved in 1981. According to Discover Magazine, 20 Things You Don't Know About Sugar, Sucralose (Splenda) was originally developed to be an insecticide (Oct. 2009, 121).
2. May, James A, The Miracle of Stevia, Kensington Publishing Corp. New York City, NY, 2003, 7, 32-42.
3. Geuns, Jan MC. Review: The Safety of Stevioside Used as a Sweetener, Proceeding of the first symposium: The Safety of Steviiside, KULeuven, 2004, 112.
4. http://www.steviauniversity.com/. Health and Healing Benefits of Stevia.
5. Ferri et all 2006; Jeppesen et al 2006; Barriocanal et al 2008; Maki et al 2008.
6. Gerraert, Benjamine et a, Natural Sweetener Stevioside Inhibits Atherosclerosis by Increasing the Antioxidant Defense in Obese, Insulin Resistant Mice, Atherosclerosis and Metabolism Unit, Deptarmtne of Cardiovascular diseases and Leuven Food Science and Nutrition Research Center Laboratory of Functional Biology, Katholieke University, Leuven, Belgium.
7. Geuns, op cit p. 85.

Last night I settled in to watch the evening news, in time to see an ad for Country Crock's Omega 3 Plus brand margarine. With my reputation as somewhat of an"omega 3 queen," I figured I'd better pay attention. And by the time the ad was over, I knew I had today's post.

This label is a perfect example of why consumers are confused, and why they can have a hard time achieving the benefits of good nutritional choices.

First, the good news.

The margarine has no trans fats, because it contains no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. For fertility, this is a huge plus--with as little as 2% of your total calories per day coming from trans fats (about 2/3 tsp for the average woman), fertility can drop by as much as 73%.

Secondly, one serving provides 500 mg of omega-3's in the form of ALA.

Now for the confusing and potentially detrimental news.

When the professionals on this blog talk about what we're doing to enhance fertility and reduce inflammation, and we refer to omega-3's, we are primarily referring to EPA and DHA, the omega-3's that, except for omega-3 eggs and foods supplemented with algal DHA, contain either fish or fish oil. (Menhaden oil, which is what is found in Smart Balance Omega 3 Margarine, is a type of fish oil.)

Any other type of omega-3 is likely to be ALA. This type of omega-3 is found in canola oil, and flaxseed oil, among other things. In this margarine, the ALA source is canola oil.

But there is no fish oil or marine algae to provide a similar nutritional feature.

There are some things that flax and canola can do, and there are some that flax and canola simply cannot do.

Many people, nutritionists included, operate on the assumption that since the omega-3 found in canola and flax can be converted into EPA and DHA, that you can get enough of the latter two without having to eat fish. Most respected omega-3 chemists will tell you this is highly unlikely.

On a good day, when your diet is as perfect as it can possibly be (which, even in the case of the person writing this post is never), only about 2-3% of your flax and canola can be converted into the other omega-3's.

Bottom line, it's pretty non-negotiable, you are highly unlikely to get the amount of omega-3's your body needs, especially if you are trying to conceive, if you are assuming you can do it without fish.

Secondly, the primary oil in the margarine appears to be liquid soybean oil. Remember the rule about"S" and"C" oils? Soybean is one of those"S" oils with a tendency to be pro-inflammatory. It was impossible to tell from the label what the ratio of soybean to canola oil was, and I would suspect that it was higher than you're going to want if you're trying to choose fertility-friendly foods.

I immediately became suspicious about this Country Crock product when I went to the website and nowhere, I mean absolutely nowhere, could I find a plainly stated ingredient list. Sure, there's a label to look at, but it's strategically posted in a way that all the nutritional information is there except for the ingredients. Hmmmm…

…so I went to the FAQ section. Couldn't find it there either. I found a lot of long-winded explanations of trans-fat labeling, and that was my second red flag.

Since I had to go to the grocery store anyway, I stopped in and looked at the label. Here, for the benefit of the rest of the people on the Internet, is the list of ingredients from the side of the container of this product:

Vegetable oil blend (liquid soybean oil, canola oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, water, whey, salt, vegetable mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin (potassium sorbate, calcium disodium EDTA), citric acid, artificial flavor, vitamin A (palmitate), and beta carotene.

For more information on healthy fats, go to http://www.zingbars.com/science-of-zing.html, where my Zing Bar friends describe why they did--and didn't--include certain fats in their new product.

Any fat that is going to be solid at room temperature is going to have to have some saturated fat in its formula. Otherwise, it would melt. So even though the total saturated fat content is low, the type of fat being used to provide the solid quality is not one you want to get much of in your diet.

I'm not really a butter or margarine person so giving those up was not an issue for me. But I did start my career in the Chicago area, and I remember how people used to look at me like I was purple-polka-dotted if I even hinted that dairy intake might need to be adjusted. So I know it's an issue for some of you.

Bottom line--if you choose to use the product, do so only once in awhile and sparingly. I'd rather see people use olive oil-based dipping sauces for breads and cook with either canola or olive oil.

If you're interested in learning more, the authors of the study below also wrote a recently released book in plain English entitled, The Fertility Diet. I'd check it out.

Chavarro JE, Rich-Edwards JW, Rosner BA, Willett WC. Diet and lifestyle in the prevention of ovulatory disorder infertility. Obstet Gynecol. 2007 Nov;110(5):1050-8.

It never fails, I teach a PCOS class and walk away learning something new that challenges me to learn more about the syndrome.

This past week in Vermont, more than one woman in the class asked me why they experience so much physical pain after exercise.

I'd never heard that complaint before, but it made sense. With regards to a simple concept that can come into play for a couple of reasons.

The concept: When your body and diet's omega-6 content is high compared to its omega-3 content, one of the things that can happen is that your nervous system registers incoming stress at lower real levels of stress. And when it's there the way the nervous system registers that stress is more profound than it would be in a woman without PCOS. And…women with PCOS seem to already be programmed to have hypersensitive nervous systems.

Simply put, there's a double exercise whammy. Imagine you and your BFF, non-PCOS friend, are next to each other at the gym, both on elliptical trainers, set at the same intensity, same exercise duration, same data entered into the machine. You, with your PCOS, are likely to feel more stressed, more winded, and to experience a higher heart rate than your friend. Even if you've been training longer and are logically/theoretically in better shape than your friend.

What that means, is that you likely leave your aerobic/cardio intensity zone at a lower intensity of exercise than your friend, and enter the carb burning range, also meaning:
--you're not burning as much fat
--you're feeling more winded
--over time, you're bulking up more than you're burning fat.

When you burn a lot of carbohydrates with exercise, you create a lot of lactic acid, which can result in muscle soreness.

I proposed to the women in the class that for the rest of the week, they be sure to keep their exercise in the target heart rate zone. They did report that this level of exercise was lower than what they had been pursuing prior to our discussion, and that at this level of exercise they did not experience the soreness.

If we're on to something, there are some really important things to remember about exercise with PCOS.
1. Don't succumb to the"more is better" mentality! It may end up, because of the pain, making exercise so painful, you will develop a negative association with it. Don't let anyone who is not studying PCOS tell you that you need to work out harder. Listen to your body, and your target heart rate.
2. Drink plenty of water after you're finished. It does help to flush out any lactic acid you've accumulated, giving it less of an opportunity to hang around and cause pain.

Another likely consequence of this scenario is that because you're not burning fat, and you've used a lot of your muscle's carbohydrate stores, you are more likely to crave carbohydrates with exercise. So if exercise seems to be intensifying your cravings instead of tempering them…it could be a sign you're pushing yourself too hard. Women with PCOS often do that because they have been conditioned to believe they're not working hard enough at being healthy. Au contraire, they're often times working too hard at it…so hard the body fights back!

To calculate your THR:
1. Subtract your current age in years from 220.
2. Multipy this number by 0.65 and 0.8. The two numbers you get are the range between where your heart rate should be stabilizing during your exercise. If it's higher, dial it back…if it's lower, step it up.

Now go have some fun at the gym, in the yard, on the tennis court, wherever you enjoy moving!

Most of us assume that every calorie we eat goes directly to being metabolized by muscle and fat. Did you know that over half of the calories you burn are used to maintain your body temperature? When you severely restrict your calories, your body temperature drops. If you know anyone who is super lean, or anorexic, they are often wearing more clothing than others with regard to the ambient temperature, which illustrates this fact.

If you've been on a restrictive diet, and you are afraid to increase your calories, for fear you're going to gain weight, try this:

Take your body temperature. If it is less than 98.6 degrees, chances are, the main change you will see if you increase your calories, is an increase in your body temperature. It's usually best to increase your calories in 100 calorie increments at a time, and sit there for a week to evaluate the effect. If your weight stays stable or drops, but your temperature increases, your problem with weight may be that you're eating too little food. Try adding 100 calories a week until you get to 98.6 degrees and see where you land.

The only condition where this experiment may not work, is if you have a thyroid that is not working the way it should, as the thyroid directly affects your metabolism.

It's a very common sense tool to look at what you're doing vs. what you may need to be doing.

Try it. You may be surprised at the results.

Well, it's not really a food, but it's one of the six essential nutrients and lack of it will kill a human much more quickly than lack of food. So I thought since the temperatures are climbing and we're all looking for something to keep us happily hydrated, that I'd talk about water today.

Did you know that the vast majority of your weight…is water? The less body fat you have the higher percentage of your total weight is water, but in general most people are about 65% water. If you do"quick fix" things to lose weight, and you lose pretty much anything measurable in the course of a day, the weight you lost is likely to be water.

A lot of times when you think you're hungry…you're actually thirsty. The body has the ability to do this, knowing that a lot of foods have water. I'm not a huge fan of the"drink water to ignore that you're truly hungry" school of nutrition, but I AM a huge fan of drinking a glass of water when you first feel you're hungry to see if the feeling goes away…or starts to drift back. If it went away, it was water that you needed. If it came back, you need to eat something.

A lot of times the energy low you feel mid-afternoon…is actually dehydration. Try keeping hydrated and see if it doesn't give you a brain boost and lessen your thoughts about getting your hands on something sweet. I was reminded of this a couple of days ago when I got busy, didn't pay attention to how much I was drinking, then spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out how to get back into my condo that I'd locked myself out of in my water-deficient stupor. It's probably why water is on my mind today!

A really interesting behavior I see in my clients is that they have very stable habits when it comes to eating--healthy or not. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner tend to be pretty much the same thing, day after day. But when it comes to drinking water they complain that they don't like it because it gets boring and tedious to drink it!

I love plain water, if it is ice cold. I also freeze fruit juice into cubes to zest my water with a little bit of lime, orange, even strawberry flavor. And whenever the special essence-flavored waters go on sale, I grab a few bottles. A shot of lemon MetroMint in a plain glass of water can really add flavor.

Another important strategy that gets water into you is to eat more fruits and vegetables. One reason they are so low in calories for the volume is that they are very high in water content. Actually, any time you eat a food that is more liquid--smoothie, soup, etc., you increase your water content.

So one of the big reasons you get so much benefit from these foods is not just that they're low in calories, but they're high in water content, which keeps you from falsely craving food and seeking out the wrong things to get rid of the urge to eat a food that you thought you wanted, you ate, then realized you didn't feel any differently…except maybe wishing you hadn't eaten what you ate.