LOOPTECHS

Food Reward Friday

On February 28, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

This week's lucky "winner"... Kirkland Signature Cashew Clusters!!

WHS reader Brad Dieter mentioned these on Facebook the other day:

Nutrition tip of the day. Do not buy Cashew Clusters from Costco. You will eat an entire bag in one fell swoop. Sweet, salty, crunchy, and calorie dense, the perfect storm in Stephan Guyenet's model of overeating. I have n=1 data as proof.

n=1 quickly turned into n=6 as other people chimed in, including myself. I can attest to the fact that Cashew Clusters are like crack. Here's more evidence from their Amazon reviews:

"Addiction with less guilt!" These things are SO freaking good!!!... I'm eating some right now and I am having trouble keeping my hand out of the bag long enough to write this review!

"Delicious". I gave this as a gift to my girl friend... She loved it ! Heard there wasn't much sugar either. Seems the nuts were crispy and the clusters were very addicting, in a nice way. It lasted only for 6 days. [SG- each bag contains 4,800 calories]

"Buy these and you will be hooked for life!" One word "NUMMY!"... Very addicting.

Cashew Clusters are only about 11 percent sugar by calories, with the other 89 percent of calories coming from whole nuts and seeds. They're probably a healthy snack if you can eat them in moderation. Can you?

Snacktime in My Kitchen

On February 26, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

Here is a photo of all visible food in my kitchen:

Along the back wall, we have glass containers of raw nuts, unsalted roasted nuts, grains, and legumes. It's easy and attractive to organize your dry foods using inexpensive 2 quart Ball jars. They also have the advantage of being moth-proof. On the left, we have fresh fruit and a few onions. On the far left in the background is our hand-cranked conical burr grinder, for occasional coffee (Skerton).

If I walk into my kitchen between meals, the only food available to eat without doing any cooking or reheating is unsalted nuts and fresh fruit. There is no other snack food in the kitchen. No chips, cookies, bars, popcorn, snack mix, candy, or anything else that's tempting and easy to grab and devour.

When it's mealtime, we eat good home-cooked food. When it isn't mealtime, we don't have anything available that we would eat without feeling genuinely hungry. If we do feel genuinely hungry, fresh fruit and unsalted nuts make a satisfying snack.

This is the way of my people.

What's the point? Eliminating tempting food cues from our surroundings and creating small barriers to food consumption decreases the quantity of food we eat while increasing the quality. Engineering a food environment that discourages eating for reasons other than hunger helps match food intake to the body's true energy needs, favoring leanness and health.

Mindless Eating

On February 13, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

You think you're in control of your eating behavior-- but you aren't

In 2005, Brian Wansink's research group published a remarkable study that demonstrates the powerful unconscious influence of the food environment on our consumption (1).

Volunteers were invited to a test kitchen to eat bowls of tomato soup for lunch. Each person was given a bowl containing 18 ounces of soup-- but there was a catch. Half the volunteers were given custom-made soup bowls that partially refilled as they ate, such that the soup level dropped more slowly.

5 Easy and Effective Ways to Eat Less

On February 11, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

Why do we overeat? Why is it hard to lose fat once we've gained it? Is there a way to comfortably and sustainably eat less and lose fat?

I recently did an interview with Armi Legge of Evidence Magazine that gives an overview of my thinking on these topics-- based on a large and compelling body of research that rarely reaches popular media sources in useful form.

At the end of the interview, Armi asks me to list my top five tips for reducing calorie intake. Enjoy!

5 Easy and Effective Ways to Eat Less

Mysteries of Energy Balance and Weight Loss

On February 06, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

How to Lose Weight Effortlessly

You've probably seen this claim many times: a pound of fat contains 3,500 kilocalories (kcal). A slice of toast is 80 kcal. All you have to do is forego one slice of toast per day-- just a few percent of your total calorie intake-- and you will lose 8.3 lbs of fat per year. Fat loss is so easy!

This reasoning is extremely common both in the popular media and among researchers. Here's an example from the book Mindless Eating, by researcher Brian Wansink:

...the difference between 1,900 and 2,000 calories is one we cannot detect, nor can we detect the difference between 2,000 and 2,100 calories. But over the course of a year, this mindless margin would either cause us to lose ten pounds or to gain ten pounds. It takes 3,500 extra calories to equal one pound. It doesn't matter if we eat these extra 3,500 calories in one week or gradually over the entire year. They'll add up to one pound.

This is the danger of creeping calories. Just 10 extra calories a day-- one stick of Doublemint gum or three small Jelly Belly jelly beans-- will make you a pound more portly one year from today. Only three Jelly Bellys a day.

According to this reasoning, if I reduced my calorie intake by 80 kcal per day, I'd become skeletal in two years and vanish in a puff of smoke within 10 years*. All from a meager 3 percent reduction in calorie intake!

What's wrong here?

NutriScience Seminar in Lisbon with Lindeberg, Fontes, and Bastos

On February 05, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

My friend Pedro Bastos has asked me to spread the word about a seminar he's organizing in Lisbon titled "Evidence and Evolution-based Nutrition". It will include Staffan Lindeberg, Maelan Fontes, and Pedro Bastos-- three quality researchers in the area of evolutionary health-- I'm sure it will be interesting. Here's the flier:

Public Talk at the University of Virginia on Friday, January 17

On January 12, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

This Friday, I'll be giving an invited lecture at the University of Virginia, my undergraduate alma mater. I was kindly invited by a medical student named Robert Abbott, and it worked out well because I was already traveling to Charlottesville.

The talk will be titled "Why Do We Overeat? A Neurobiological Perspective". Here's the teaser:

Obesity is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized nations, yet this is a relatively recent phenomenon. In the United States, increasing obesity prevalence has paralleled a gradual increase of daily energy intake. Why do most Americans eat more than we used to, and more than we need to maintain a lean state, despite negative consequences? This presentation will touch on the neurobiology of action selection, the neurobiology of energy homeostasis, and why our central nervous system hardware may not be up to the task of constructively navigating the modern food environment.

The talk will be attended by medical students, but I also hope to have some doctors and researchers show up, as well as people from the broader Charlottesville community. It will be a thought-provoking talk regardless of your background, and it will touch on some of my own work.

The talk will be held in the main medical school auditorium, MEB 3110, on Friday, January 17 at noon. You can find driving directions and parking information by following this link. You'll probably have to park in a parking garage, either the Lee Street or Central Grounds garage (directions in the link).

For a map of the UVA health system, follow this link. The Medical Education Building is number 44 on the map, and the talk will be in room MEB 3110 on the 3rd floor of the building.

See you there!

Free e-Book and Ideal Weight Program 2.0 Announcement

On January 01, 2014 By jammy // No comments:

I'm happy to announce that we're releasing a free e-book titled Why do We Gain Fat, and How do We Lose it? An Introduction to the Science of Body Fat, by Dan Pardi and myself. This is a slimmed-down version of the longer, fully referenced e-book we offer as part of the Ideal Weight Program. In it, we provide a succinct overview of the science of body fat gain and loss, and the evidence base for our program. It also contains a schematic that ties together the various concepts in visual form. You can download it from the Dan’s Plan site by following this link to our program overview page.

Ideal Weight Program 2.0 Upgrades

Over the last year, Dan and I have been working hard to improve the Ideal Weight Program, both in response to user feedback and our own ideas for development. Here are some of the new features we offer in 2014:

Four-week meal plans and shopping lists for the FLASH diet and the Simple Food Diet, as requested by Ideal Weight Program users. This is in addition to the recipes and cooking guides we already provide.
The Protein Unit system. Research suggests there's an optimal amount of protein for appetite control and fat loss, depending on your height, weight, gender, and physical activity level. Our fat loss diets are high in protein, but how do you know you're getting the right amount? We've created a calculator that does it for you automatically, and explains how to apply your personalized Protein Unit value easily and intuitively using real food.
Diet plates. These are visual guides to following our diets, based loosely on the intuitive USDA MyPlate design.
Cheat sheets. Put these on your fridge to remind yourself of your diet and lifestyle guidelines, and daily protein unit goal.
Updated guidance. We've refined a few things in the diet guidance documents.

At a time of year when many people want to shed excess holiday pounds and start down a leaner, healthier path, we offer the Ideal Weight Program 2.0. The program comes with a 30-day no-questions-asked refund policy so you can try it without risk. We think you'll love this program, but if it doesn't work for you, we're happy to refund your purchase price.

Financial disclosure: I receive a portion of the revenue from the sale of the Ideal Weight Program. I do not receive revenue from the sale of other products associated with Dan's Plan or the Ideal Weight Program (such as the Fitbit, cooking tools, and other programs).

Does the Vitamin and Mineral Content of Food Influence Our Food Intake and Body Fatness?

On December 30, 2013 By jammy // No comments:

The Claim: We Overeat Because Our Diet is Low in Vitamins and Minerals

We know that animals, including humans, seek certain properties of food. Humans are naturally attracted to food that's high in fat, sugar, starch, and protein, and tend to be less enthusiastic about low-calorie foods that don't have these properties, like vegetables (1). Think cookies vs. plain carrots.

In certain cases, the human body is able to detect a nutritional need and take steps to correct it. For example, people who are placed on a calorie-restricted diet become hungry and are motivated to make up for the calorie shortfall (2, 3). People who are placed on a low-protein diet crave protein and eat more of it after the restriction is lifted (4). Humans and many other animals also crave and seek salt, which supplies the essential minerals sodium and chlorine, although today most of us eat much more of it than we need to. At certain times, we may crave something sweet or acidic, and pregnant women are well known to have specific food cravings and aversions, although explanations for this remain speculative. Research suggests that certain animals have the ability to correct mineral deficiencies by selecting foods rich in the missing mineral (5).

These observations have led to a long-standing idea that the human body is able to detect vitamin and mineral (micronutrient) status and take steps to correct a deficit. This has led to the secondary idea that nutrient-poor food leads to overeating, as the body attempts to make up for low nutrient density by eating more food. In other words, we overeat because our food doesn't supply the micronutrients our bodies need, and eating a micronutrient-rich diet corrects this and allows us to eat less and lose body fat. These ideas are very intuitive, but intuition doesn't always get you very far in biology. Let's see how they hold up to scrutiny.

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Food Reward Friday

On December 20, 2013 By jammy // No comments:

This week's lucky "winner"... peanut M + M's!!!

Does "Metabolically Healthy Obesity" Exist?

On December 10, 2013 By jammy // No comments:

Obesity is strongly associated with metabolic alterations and negative health outcomes including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some types of cancer (1, 2, 3, 4). Excess body fat is one of the primary causes of preventable health problems and mortality in the United States and many other affluent nations, ranking in importance with cigarette smoking and physical inactivity. Obesity is thought to contribute to disease via the metabolic disturbances it causes, including excess glucose and lipids in the circulation, dysregulated hormone activity including insulin and leptin, and inflammatory effects. This immediately raises two questions:

Does metabolically healthy obesity exist?
If so, are metabolically healthy obese people at an elevated risk of disease and death?

Does metabolically healthy obesity exist?

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Food Reward Friday

On November 29, 2013 By jammy // No comments:

This week's lucky "winner"... Oreo cookies!!!

Beans, Lentils, and the Paleo Diet

On November 23, 2013 By jammy // No comments:

As we continue to explore the foods our ancestors relied on during our evolutionary history, and what foods work best for us today, we come to legumes such as beans and lentils. These are controversial foods within the Paleolithic diet community, while the broader nutrition community tends to view legumes as healthy.

Beans and lentils have a lot going for them. They're one of the few foods that are simultaneously rich in protein and fiber, making them highly satiating and potentially good for the critters in our colon. They're also relatively nutritious, delivering a hefty dose of vitamins and minerals. The minerals are partially bound by the anti-nutrient phytic acid, but simply soaking and cooking beans and lentils typically degrades 30-70 percent of it, making the minerals more available for absorption (Food Phytates. Reddy and Sathe. 2002). Omitting the soaking step greatly reduces the degradation of phytic acid (Food Phytates. Reddy and Sathe. 2002).

The only tangible downside to beans I can think of, from a nutritional standpoint, is that some people have a hard time with the large quantity of fermentable fiber they provide, particularly people who are sensitive to FODMAPs. Thorough soaking prior to cooking can increase the digestibility of the "musical fruit" by activating the sprouting program and leaching out tannins and indigestible saccharides. I soak all beans and lentils for 12-24 hours.

The canonical Paleolithic diet approach excludes legumes because they were supposedly not part of our ancestral dietary pattern. I'm going to argue here that there is good evidence of widespread legume consumption by hunter-gatherers and archaic humans, and that beans and lentils are therefore an "ancestral" food that falls within the Paleo diet rubric. Many species of edible legumes are common around the globe, including in Africa, and the high calorie and protein content of legume seeds would have made them prime targets for exploitation by ancestral humans after the development of cooking. Below, I've compiled a few examples of legume consumption by hunter-gatherers and extinct archaic humans. I didn't have to look very hard to find these, and there are probably many other examples available. If you know of any, please share them in the comments.

To be clear, I would eat beans and lentils even if they weren't part of ancestral hunter-gatherer diets, because they're inexpensive, nutritious, I like the taste, and they were safely consumed by many traditional agricultural populations probably including my own ancestors.

Extensive "bean" consumption by the !Kung San of the Kalahari desert

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