Category Archives: Diet And Food

Dear Rachel,

I'm a university student and I lost 20 pounds from January to April through eating healthily and regular exercise, which I loved. My confidence and mental health, which had been affecting me for a while, were so much better. At the beginning I went to the gym with a friend and we did workouts together, but by the end I was quite happy going by myself and going into the weights section alone. It was such a relief to finally be feeling good and so much more positive about my life.

Then something happened. I started feeling like I could treat myself more. Without noticing, I stopped going to the gym and wasn't making the right food choices. I started to stress-eat around exam time and shut off anything to do with exercise, spending time in the library eating chocolate bars and chips as a comfort blanket. I didn't really notice the weight piling back on. I tend to self-destruct like this when I feel like everything's too much.

It's now a few months later and I'm right back where I started. I feel so frustrated and angry for letting myself do this when I tried so hard. I try to eat healthily but after two days I'm back to binge-eating in the evenings for no reason. I have no motivation to exercise. I feel like I'm at a standstill and don't know how to get started again.

What can I do to improve my situation? I feel stuck in the same cycle that I've always found myself in and find it so hard to stick to a regular routine.

Yo-Yo Dieter

Dear Yo-Yo,

Your frustration is very understandable believe me, I know the feeling and I honestly believe keeping weight off may be harder than losing it in the first place.

For lots of people, you get in a "zone" when you're losing weight. A certain headspace, if you will, where you're focused on your goal. You find out what works for you, and you gradually get there. It feels good.

But then once you're feeling happy with the amount of fat you've lost, you want to move into maintenance and that's often the most difficult bit.

Firstly, it's hard to know how much you can "relax" in order to maintain your current body composition rather than gain weight. Once you move away from your weight loss mindset, it's also all too easy to slip right back into all your old eating habits, which for many of us were what got us feeling like we should slim down in the first place.

So what's the solution?

Firstly, as always, don't beat yourself up.

"While I'm not condoning eating copious quantities of chocolate and not taking part in any physical activity, have you ever thought that this constant berating of yourself is feeding into your behaviour?" sports and eating disorder specialist dietitian Renee McGregor asked.

McGregor told Insider that holding yourself to too high a standard could be setting yourself up to fail.

A post shared by Renee Mcgregor (@r_mcgregor)Sep 7, 2019 at 1:00am PDT

"It's obvious from your message that you have some real beliefs about what makes you happy and a good person. While training and eating right are healthy behaviors, they should also never become obsessive," she said.

"The issue now is that because you've got this belief system that to be healthy you have to go to the gym daily and eat in a certain way, when you don't quite meet this, you feel like you've failed and so you beat yourself up."

And if you don't switch this mindset, you'll never make any sustainable changes.

The key is to try and re-train your brain as much as your body.

McGregor pointed out that taking a black and white approach to "good" and "bad" days is unhelpful.

"What can often happen is that individuals over-restrict on 'good' days," she said. "The body then finds this difficult as it is always trying to achieve energy balance; similarly if you don't provide your body with enough fuel, you will crave more sugar as glucose is the body's preferred currency to provide energy.

"So you set yourself up to fail. You over-restrict, your blood sugars drop, you eat something you deem as 'bad' which then sets up the thinking that you have failed, resulting in you eating to excess, feeding back into the self-sabotage that you are a bad person."

But it's totally possible to move away from this downwards spiral, and that's what will make any changes you implement become part of a new healthy, sustainable lifestyle, meaning any weight lost in the process is more likely to stay off.

A post shared by Rachel Hosie (@rachel_hosie)Apr 22, 2019 at 4:45am PDT

You have to stop thinking about weight loss as something which has an end goal in sight. There's no finish line.

I don't mean for that to sound depressing, or make it seem like you're going to be trying to lose weight for the rest of your life. Instead, you should figure out which healthy habits are enjoyable enough for you to become part of your lifestyle.

This mindset also helped me stop beating myself up if, say, I indulged more than usual on a holiday and put on a few pounds as a result, I feel OK about it because I know in the scheme of my life, it's insignificant. I come back from holiday, and I go back to my normal routine.

Registered nutritionist Lily Soutter agrees that it's important to stop thinking about being on a diet.

"'Dieting' can be a huge driver for binge-eating. In fact, the more restrictive we are with our diet the more likely we are to binge-eat," she explained to Insider.

"Focusing on weight loss can be counterproductive to binge-eating recovery, however, binge-eating recovery can be the best step to achieving a healthy body weight."

A post shared by Lily Soutter BSc (hons) (@lily_soutter_nutrition)Oct 12, 2019 at 1:52am PDT

Don't cut anything out of your diet or tell yourself you can't have it, as that will just make you want it even more. If you love cookie dough ice cream, you're not going to be able to live the rest of your life without it, so allow yourself some and learn that "enough is as good as a feast" (or so my mother always says to me). This essentially means re-training yourself to be satisfied by a normal portion size rather than feeling like you need to consume vast amounts.

"If chocolate is a common binge food, instead of going cold-turkey, enjoy this food daily to reduce its desirability," Soutter recommended.

"But be mindful of portion-size and the environment in which you consume this food, only buy small packs and eat slowly and mindfully, ideally in the company of others.

"Often when we eat mindfully we tend to feel more satisfied with our food which better regulates our hunger and fullness cues."

It's never too late to start again when it comes to working towards a healthier lifestyle, and don't worry about the fact that you lost weight then regained it most of us try various approaches, diets, and ways of exercising before finding what's right for us.

It's not failing. It's how we learn.

But you need to start small.

"In order to change you need to make realistic changes, baby steps that don't feel too difficult," McGregor advised.

"If the gym feels like a big jump at the moment, why don't you start with daily walks; if this feels manageable then sign up to a class, something like yoga which may feel more nurturing than the gym.

"Similarly with eating, don't create any rules about what you should or shouldn't eat. The first aim should be to prevent blood sugar fluctuations to do this try to eat something at 3-4 hour intervals."

Soutter pointed out that eating regularly can help remove the urge to binge-eat, too.

A post shared by Lily Soutter BSc (hons) (@lily_soutter_nutrition)Oct 21, 2019 at 12:35am PDT

McGregor recommends eating satiating snacks like Greek yogurt with fruit, oatcakes with houmous or peanut butter, or an apple with brazil nuts.

"This more gentle approach will help you to create sustainable, balanced behaviours and focuses on having a healthy attitude towards food and exercise," she added.

Soutter agrees that taking on too much too quickly is likely to end in disaster.

"It can be all too easy to be overly restrictive when starting up an exercise and nutrition regime," she says. "However, following a routine which is overly taxing and unrealistic can trigger an 'all or nothing' mentality.

"On the other hand, small incremental and sustainable changes can make a big impact long term."

If you lose some weight and then gain some weight, that's OK. There's no rush. And remember, health really isn't to do with the number on the scale.

If you're making healthy decisions like snacking on an apple rather than a chocolate bar, prioritizing your sleep, and getting more activity into your day, applaud yourself for that. By trying to make positive changes, you're already doing amazing.

Wishing you well,

Rachel

As Insider's Senior Lifestyle Reporter and a self-confessed fitness fanatic, Rachel Hosie is fully immersed in the wellness scene and is here to answer all your burning questions. Whether you're struggling to find the motivation to go for a run, confused about light vs. heavy weights, or don't know whether you should be worried about how much sugar is in a mango, Rachel is here to give you the no-nonsense answers and advice you need, with strictly no fad diets in sight.

Rachel has a wealth of experience covering fitness, nutrition, and wellness, and she has the hottest experts at her fingertips she regularly speaks to some of the world's most knowledgeable and renowned personal trainers, dietitians, and coaches, ensuring she's always up-to-date with the latest science-backed facts you need to know to live your happiest, healthiest life.

Have a question? Ask Rachel at workingitout@insider.com orfill out this anonymous form. All questions will be published anonymously.

See the original post here:
How to avoid regaining weight and keep the pounds off - Business Insider

Many years ago, I worked for a reproductive endocrinologist who hosted a yearly gathering of former patients. It was there that I encountered a woman holding infant twin daughters. When I congratulated her on her twins, she had these thoughts to share: Im a psychiatrist and I hope youll pass this on. Please tell people not to worry about being positive and hopeful. I abandoned hope and went through my last IVF cycle as the queen of negativity. Then she held up her twins and said, And this is what I got. Please reassure people that they dont have to stay positive.

Over the years, I have come to believe that managing hope is a major challenge during infertility treatment. This story illustrates one facet of the challenge: does it matter if one is hopeful during a treatment cycle? Some patients work very hard to remain positive and to nurture hope, while others, like the mom in the story, ride a wave of negativity. People in both groups have healthy pregnancies. And sadly, there are members of both groups who meet repeated disappointment.

Managing hope is even more challenging when it comes to the big picture, looking beyond a specific cycle and to the question of when enough is enough. During infertility treatments, there are people who remain hopeful when odds are against them and others who lose hope when test results and medication responses seem promising.

A few factors that contribute to or reduce your sense of hopefulness are:

Personal history. Some people come to infertility with a history of good luck and good fortune, an abiding belief that things work out for them. Their history fuels their hope.

Determination. Threaded throughout the infertility population are some pretty determined people. These hard workers have been rewarded for their efforts on the job and in other areas of their lives. They assume that if they read extensively on infertility, research the best doctors, eat a fertility diet, and incorporate appropriate alternative treatments, they will succeed in having a baby.

Doctor-patient relationship. Communication between doctors who treat infertility and their patients plays a significant role in fueling or deflating hope. Good doctors do their best to promote an appropriate level of hope. They believe that doing right by their patients means helping them pursue treatment that has a reasonable chance of working, and helping them leave treatment that is unlikely to work. Sadly, there are times when people remain in unsuccessful treatment because their doctors are reluctant to be the bearers of bad news.

Fellow travelers. Infertility patients cope with the stresses of infertility by finding each other. Waiting rooms, support groups, and online chats all connect infertility patients. While it can be painful to learn that a fellow infertility traveler has become pregnant against all odds, this sort of news fuels hope. Alternatively, seeing a fellow infertility traveler move happily on to adoption or egg donation can redirect hope. An option that once seemed like what you do when you give up now brings new possibilities.

Faith. Faith and spirituality nurture hope for some infertility patients. The nature of this hope may shift from the hope that comes from believing that prayers will be answered, to the hope that comes from believing that some things are meant to be. Guided by faith, these infertility patients have an abiding sense that there are forces beyond them ensuring a safe and positive outcome of this journey.

In working with individuals and couples trying to manage hope and caution as they enter a first or second or fifth IVF cycle, I am always careful to leave it to them to gauge hope. Over the years, it has been humbling to see some people achieve the most unlikely pregnancies while others are mired in disappointment.

These experiences have left me with a profound respect for peoples ability to titrate optimism and caution as they make their way through infertility. There are times when a bounty of hope feels right. At other times, infertility travelers need to shelter themselves with caution. This was my takeaway message from the psychiatrist mom I met at that gathering so long ago.

Read more:
Hope and caution during infertility treatment - Harvard Health Blog - Harvard Health

Rob Kardashian was once a fixture on reality TV. He appeared on Keeping Up with the Kardashians as well as some of the familys spinoff shows including his own show Rob & Chyna. But Kardashian has struggled with his weight for years and decided to spend more time out of the spotlight.

Recently though the Arthur George designerhas been focused on getting healthy both physically and mentally and is seeing results. Heres how much weight he has lost so far and what hes doing to keep it off, plus if hes ready to return to the limelight.

While his sisters never shy away from the spotlight, their brother is the opposite and did not want to be seen in public at all after he started putting on the pounds.

I gained a bunch of weight and was super uncomfortable in my skin, he told People in 2016, adding, The whole weight thing really affected me.

Kardashians insecurities even kept him from attending his older sibling Kims wedding to Kanye West in 2014 because he did not want to be photographed looking and feeling the way he did.

I was doing my suit fittings in Paris right before the wedding and I just wasnt comfortable. Im 6 foot 1 and at my most I probably weighed 300 lbs, he revealed. There were cameras at the airport on our trip there and I was very unhappy with the person I saw in all the pictures.

But in June 2019, Kardashian announced that he was hitting the gym and determined to shed the weight.

Then in October, fans caught a glimpse of him in Kims Instagram stories. He was noticeably thinner and according to TMZ has lost around 20 pounds so far.

A source close to Kardashian told E! News that he is not only looking better but feeling a lot better too. So what has he done to drop the weight and how is he staying in shape?

He is very focused on making changes and sticking with it. He has cut down fast food and has completely changed his diet, the source said. He also stopped drinking, which is really helping him. He is feeling a lot better and seeing results.

In addition to his new diet, Kris Jenners son has also been working out regularly with a trainer and playing basketball with friends.

Its also been reported that Kardashians motivation to finally get healthy and maintain that lifestyle is his young daughter, Dream, who he shares with Blac Chyna.

Now that hes made positives changes and is feeling good fans are wondering if theyll be seeing him at public events more or back on KUWTK regularly.

Time will tell but as of right now he seems to be content with working on himself away from the spotlight, which is fine by his fans as they are rooting for him to be happy and healthy.

Read more: Which Kardashian-Jenner Sister Has Had the Most Plastic Surgery?

See the rest here:
How Much Weight Has Rob Kardashian Lost and How is He Keeping it Off? - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

While running doesnt cause osteoarthritisreally, research backs us up!runners can still be at risk of developing this condition, where the cartilage protecting your joints wears down.

If you are one of the people who deals with osteoarthritis, you may have heard about steroid injections as a potential treatment for pain and inflammation. But according to new research published in the journal Radiology, these injections may not be as safe as doctors previously thought.

In a review of existing studies about complications from steroid injectionsplus observing outcomes of 459 patients from their hospitalresearchers from Boston Universitys School of Medicine found that the injections can cause further damage to your joints, therefore accelerating your arthritis. Specifically, you may lose joint space, cartilage, or even bone, Ali Guermazi, M.D., Ph.D., study author and professor of radiology at Boston University, told Runners World.

This may be because steroids can be toxic to cartilage tissue in high doses, the study states, interfering with the production and breakdown of cartilage proteins. That means you may lose out on the cushioning effect of cartilage.

However, Guermazi notes that this is an observational studymeaning it cant prove cause and effectand further research is needed. His take-home message, though, is for patients to merely be informed that these complications can occur, since as of right now, theyre not well known, and its not common for doctors to inform patients of these possibilities.

These injections are used by hundreds of thousands worldwide, so from now on, we need to let patients know this is something that can happen, he said.

[From training tips, to fueling strategies, to improving the mind-body connection, the Runners World 2020 Calendar will help you run your best all year long.]

Guermazi goes on to say that even if your steroid injection doesnt cause the above-mentioned complications, they only treat inflammation and pain temporarily, which is why people have to keep getting them. As it stands right now, there is no permanent treatment for osteoarthritis, according to Guermazi, though there are currently clinical trials going on in regards to treating both pain and the structural damage to the joint. (As weve previously reported, some of the more advanced treatments include neuromuscular stimulators, regenerative injectables, cartilage replacement, and synthetic implants.)

And while NSAIDs can also help relieve pain and inflammation temporarily, your best bet, he says, is to focus on diet and exercise. While its common to believe being active might worsen arthritis, research shows that it can reduce inflammation and prevent further damage to your cartilage.

Its also important to make sure that your weight falls within a healthy range, since the more overweight you are, the more force you put on your joints. Guermazi also recommends regularly practicing yoga to ease any stiffness you may be experiencing.

Originally posted here:
Steroid Injections May Not Be the Arthritis Cure-All That You Think - Runner's World

Doctors have called on workplaces to ban sales of sugary drinks after research showed that removing them from cafes, canteens and vending machines helped reduce peoples waistlines and improve their health.

Researchers monitored more than 200 staff at the University of California in San Francisco and its associated hospital after a ban was introduced in 2015. Before the ban, the participating staff consumed on average more than a litre of sugary drinks daily, but 10 months later had slashed their intake by nearly half.

Medical assessments of the staff found they had lost an average of more than 2cm around the waist, and that those who reduced their sugary drink intake tended to have better insulin resistance and lower cholesterol.

A simple sales ban has meaningful effects on employees health, said Elissa Epel, a professor of psychiatry who led the work. This is very exciting news, because to eliminate sales of sugary beverages is something any institution can do. The ban was only on sales and did not prevent people from bringing sugary drinks to work, or buying them off-site.

Beyond investigating the impact of the sales ban itself, Epel randomly assigned half of the staff to also receive a motivational intervention. This involved showing them how much sugar they were consuming for example, one sugary drink per day was equivalent to a plastic cup half full of sugar cubes. The staff were also given information on how sugar harms health and were helped to identify reasons they might want to adopt a healthier lifestyle.

Eating too much sugar contributes to people having too many calories during the day, which can lead to weight gain. Being overweight increases the risk of health problems such as heart diseases, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Sugar is also one of the main causes of tooth decay.

The NHS advises that most adults and children in the UK eat too much of a type of sugar called 'free sugars'. These are the sugars added to food and drinks, found in biscuits, chocolate, breakfast cereals and fizzy drinks. But they are also found naturally in honey and unsweetened fruit juices.

The UK governments recommendation is that these 'free sugars' should not make up more than 5% of the calories you have every day. That is still quite a lot of sugar - it equates to seven sugar cubes worth for an adult. But bear in mind that one can of a fizzy drink can include the equivalent of 9 cubes of sugar. Children under 4 should avoid all sugar-sweetened drinks and food with added 'free sugars' in it.

Martin Belam

According to the report in the journal Jama Internal Medicine, sugary drink intake fell 49% on average. The sales ban alone allowed staff to cut their sugary drinks by 23% (246ml) daily. But the intervention had a greater impact, prompting staff to reduce their intake by 73% (762ml) daily.

We found that for people with overweight or obesity, if they also got the brief counselling discussion, they showed significant reductions in their lipid levels as well. So for heavier people, the extra attention really mattered to them. They benefited the most, said Epel.

Laura Schmidt, a co-author of the study, said the permanent ban on sugary drinks sales at UCSF was an obvious move. These days, most of what we are treating in our healthcare system is chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancers and Alzheimers. All of these conditions can be linked back to the calorie-dense, nutritionally poor standard western diet, she said. It made sense for a health sciences campus like UCSF to say no to profiting off the sales of products that cause the very diseases we treat in our hospitals and clinics.

Aseem Malhotra, an NHS consultant cardiologist and professor of evidence-based medicine, said: This latest research not only solidifies the evidence that the positive health impact of sugar reduction is independent of body weight, but that removing the sale of sugary drinks from the working environment is a key solution to combating diet-related disease amongst staff.

Its an absolute scandal that our hospitals have become a branding opportunity for the junk food industry and not surprising that more than 50% of healthcare staff are now overweight or obese. If we truly want to reverse obesity and its associated diseases we must stop selling sickness in the hospital grounds.

Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive, said: Since the NHS first asked hospitals to reduce sales of sugary drinks we have removed over 32 million teaspoons of sugar or the equivalent of around 900,000 cans of fizzy pop.

Obesity is a dangerous public health threat, leading to a string of serious illnesses for millions, with thousands of people ending up in hospital as a result, so every industry needs to take a look at what it can do to support urgent action like reducing sales of sugary drinks to prevent harm and safeguard children.

Read more:
Doctors call on workplaces to ban sale of sugary drinks - The Guardian

Chinese call them "xiongmao," meaning, "bear that looks like a cat." The adjective they use is "meng" which translates, "cute like a baby." Until recently, the giant panda was on its way to extinction. But then, it was saved by its one evolutionary advantage: it's adorable. In 2016, the panda's conservation status was upgraded from endangered to just vulnerable. Because the giant panda is China's national symbol, the Chinese have worked four decades to perfect breeding the bears in captivity. They've achieved one of the biggest successes in conservation, but there is more work to do. The next step is introducing captive pandas into the wild. That research slowed after a few freed bears were found dead. And, as you are about to see, no Chinese scientist can afford to lose even one baby cute cat bear.

Giant pandas have been chewing bamboo for about 3 million years, but they were so elusive in the high mountains of China, pandas weren't discovered by western naturalists until 1869.

Today their fans know where to find them. Each morning humans compete for position at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Central China. A ticket is about eight bucks. Some days there are 100,000 visitors. So, yes, that's $800,000 a day. But the experience is priceless. If these bears were in the wild, they'd be rare and solitary. They would be in alpine forests as high as 13,000 feet and we saw, about 30 feet up, how they went unnoticed for so long.

At the research base, each bear is known by name, liked online and wrapped in the flag. A selfie with China's national symbol, is a tap of patriotism.

Marc Valitutto: When I'm out on the street, and if anybody asks me about what I do, I tell them, "I work with giant pandas," they immediately thank me. And then they follow it up with, "That is our national treasure."

Enriching the treasure is the work of Marc Valitutto, a wildlife veterinarian from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, on loan to the Chengdu Research Base.

The Smithsonian has helped propagate pandas since China sent Richard Nixon home with a pair in 1972. Back then, China barely had two to spare. By the 1980's there were only about 1,200 left, in China's bamboo forests, which humans were cutting down.

Scott Pelley: Is bamboo the only thing they eat?

Marc Valitutto: 99% of their diet in the wild is bamboo.

A forest is delivered every day to the Chengdu base. The common name, "panda," means "bamboo eater." But because this member of the grass family is so low in nutrition, each bear spends up to 16 hours a day shredding 40 pounds of leaves and stems and that is hardly enough to keep him alive. So, the rest of the day, the bears burn as few calories as possible. Even mating is incredibly rare.

Marc Valitutto: Only once a year can a female be prepared for breeding. And that is within a very small three-day window.

Scott Pelley: A female panda is capable of breeding three days a year?

Marc Valitutto: Exactly. A very small time.

A very small time for a very small bear.

Scott Pelley: and, how old are these cubs?

Dr. Wu Kongju: One month.

Dr. Wu Kongju told us, when these cubs are newborn, they average about four ounces. The size of a stick of butter.

Scott Pelley: And how many cubs do you bring into the world in a year?

Dr. Wu Kongju: This year is five. Five babies.

Scott Pelley: Of the five cubs that are born here this year, how many do you expect to survive?

Dr. Wu Kongju: All.

Scott Pelley: All of them?

Dr. Wu Kongju: All will survive. Yeah.

About half the time, pandas have twins but the mother can't care for both.

Marc Valitutto: In the wild, the smaller, the weaker twin will be left off to die, because the mother doesn't have enough energy to produce the amount of milk that's required for two babies.

But in captivity, twins are fed in the nursery and, with a touch, mom is called to duty, to nurse the twins one at a time so both survive. The cub's eyes won't open for about six weeks so mother helps him to her breast. And like every nursing mom, a change of position helps.

Especially, when her back is killing her.

The cubs are dependent up to three years. She'll raise only five, or maybe eight, in her lifetime.

Scott Pelley: How big do they become?

Marc Valitutto: So, the females can be up to maybe around 200 pounds, and the males up to 300 pounds.

Scott Pelley: Why are they black and white?

Marc Valitutto: You know, that's a very interesting question. It's a mechanism to protect themselves, like many, many other animals out there that are black and white or various different colors.

Scott Pelley: It's camouflage?

Marc Valitutto: You know pandas love the snow. So, the white parts really helped them hide in the snow, where the black would be presumptive of shadows.

The panda is a curious bear. In the last century, many biologists didn't think it belonged in the bear family. Pandas don't hibernate. And though they're virtual vegetarians, they have the digestive tract of a carnivore. Panda nutrition was a mystery when Dr. Hou Rong came here nearly 30 years ago. She's director of research and told us that the base started as a shelter for injured pandas that had been rescued.

Dr. Hou Rong (Translation): There were very few pandas. All of them were seriously ill, close to impossible to breed, we were also broke. I was the only scientist.

Scott Pelley: You had a dozen pandas?

Dr. Hou Rong: Yes.

Scott Pelley: How many do you have now?

Dr. Hou Rong: Now is 200.

200 healthy pandas have grown from the research into nutrition and understanding those fleeting female hormones. It's gone so well that a new area of research has opened: panda geriatrics. The bears live about 20 years in the wild but up to 35 in the company of man. In 1937, a leading American naturalist described the giant panda as "an extremely stupid beast, dull and primitive." But Marc Valitutto showed us pandas understand commands.

The whistle signals something good is about to happen, generally involving apple slices. Then, on cue, the bear volunteered its arm, through the bars, to a metal tray and gripped a handle. It's having a blood test.Marc Valitutto: All of the pandas, the adult pandas here, are trained specifically to offer their arm for a blood sample. It really helps us to prevent the animals from having to be anesthetized and allows the animal to be an active participant in their health.

Scott Pelley: I've seen people throw a bigger fuss than he did.

Marc Valitutto: They're incredibly complex creatures, just like many other bear species or carnivorous species like dogs and cats.

Like dogs, pandas come at the sound of their name. They know their day will start with apples and continue at the endless bamboo buffet.

But success in captivity does not necessarily mean salad days for the species. To thrive, genetically, they must come home to the wild.

Melissa Songer: This is really an exciting time, because they're doing so well in captivity. And we can really consider them safe. That's not so for the wild populations.

Melissa Songer is a Smithsonian conservation biologist working at the foot of Mount Qingcheng, near the center of China.

Melissa Songer: This is the Chengdu Field Research Center and most people know it as Panda Valley. And it was established for the purpose of preparing captive pandas for release into the wild.

Scott Pelley: One of the amazing things that we saw is how well trained they are. But it strikes me that that's a blessing and a curse.

Melissa Songer: They don't have the opportunity to learn how to find food or defend against predators. Even mating is very complex in the wild. So yes, they're highly trained, but they aren't really trained to be in the wild.Scott Pelley: Then do you train them to be wild? And-- and if so, how do you do that?Melissa Songer: They're not going to be fed. They're going to have to move around and find food. And taking it step by step so acclimatizing them to a very different situation is an important phase before full release.Scott Pelley: Like sending the kids off to college.Melissa Songer: Yeah. Exactly.

There are fewer than 2,000 wild pandas, living in only three mountainous provinces of china. They're segregated into small groups, cut off from one another by roads, farms and villages.

Melissa Songer: About half of those populations are less than ten pandas. And so that kind of puts them at risk for losing genetic diversity, it puts them at risk for other events, natural disasters, diseases that might come through. So, it's a dangerous number.

To reduce the danger, two research bases are testing competing ideas. One, from a research station called Wolong, minimizes contact with people, to the point of dressing the trainers in panda suits that are scented with panda urine so the bears don't even get a whiff of humanity. The other approach encourages the human relationship, in case a panda needs to be rescued. While the bears walk on the wild side, they're monitored with radio collars in case they get into trouble.

So far, 14 pandas have been released, three have died. But those few failures have slowed the research because if a panda is killed, it's not just some 'bear,' it's a bear with a name, and a million "likes" on its webpage.

Melissa Songer: Any time you release a captive animal to the wild you're taking a risk. And you prepare as best you can, but there are things you can't really prepare for.

One of the pandas who died was attacked by dogs, another appears to have fallen from a tree. The captive-born pandas take longer to establish territory but, for the most part, they fit in. China says it will soon spend more than a billion dollars on a 10,000 square mile panda national reserve to connect those pockets of wild bears.

Scott Pelley: It suggests that species can be saved.

Marc Valitutto: It absolutely does. But more than that, what's even better than the survivability of this species is that they are an umbrella species, meaning that the care that we provide for the pandas and the tracts of land that we preserve, will also save a whole multitude of other species that also need our care, that a lot of people don't even know about.

Which raises a fair question. If a multitude of species is saved, if climate benefits from five million acres of forest reserve, are we saving the panda or is the panda saving us?

Produced by Nicole Young. Associate producers, Katie Kerbstat and Ian Flickinger

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Giant pandas: Saving the giant panda from extinction - 60 Minutes - CBS News

We all know one of those people who went on a crazy diet and lost what seems like half their body weight, and if youre anything like me, you have been jealous of them but dont have the willpower to follow in their footsteps. Or maybe you went a step further than I did and tried the same diet as your friend but didnt find the same success.

The reason why most diets dont work is simple: People just cant stick to them.

Some of the most popular diets are the Whole30, Keto, Paleo and CICO.

These kinds of diets are not sustainable. The Whole30, for example, is named after the fact that it only lasts 30 days. But after that month, the dieter is left saying, Now what?

The truth is, although there arent exact numbers to prove this, it is estimated that anywhere between 80 and 95 percent of people who are successful with their weight loss after their diet eventually gain it back.

There are an overwhelming number of diets out there for people to choose from, with new diets constantly surfacing. Cookbooks, documentaries and guides are becoming more and more popular, contributing to a $72 billion weight loss industry. This number is only expected to increase, as the total market is forecasted to grow 2.6% annually through 2023.

The Whole30 diet consists of not eating sugar for 30 days, cutting out cravings and starting to eliminate sugar addiction.

There is also the popular ketogenic (keto) diet, also known as low carbing, which is a diet where you consume little to no carbohydrates. When you lower your amount of carbohydrate intake, it forces the body into a state of ketosis the body starts to burn fat to generate energy instead of the typical burning of carbohydrates.

The Paleo diet is a diet that supposedly mimics a diet that may have been eaten in the Paleolithic Era. According to the Mayo Clinic, [a] paleo diet typically includes lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds foods that in the past could be obtained by hunting and gathering. This diet is often criticised, as there is evidence that humans of the Paleolithic Era ate grains, and the modern day paleo diet calls for no grains.

Another diet rising in popularity is CICO, an acronym for calories in, calories out. This is a diet where you track all the calories you eat and all of the calories you burn. The goal of CICO is to burn more calories than you consume. This diet requires heavy involvement, as you have to measure the exact amount of calories you are eating and the precise amount of calories you burn. The deficit in the amount of calories you consume should, theoretically, correspond to the amount of weight you lose.

Common and potentially problematic sources of information for people seeking health advice are documentaries and dieting guidebooks. The documentary What the Health, for example, claims that eating one egg is equivalent to smoking five cigarettes. This statement shocked me, as I am someone who eats about 18 eggs a week I love eggs.

The basis behind this claim is that egg yolks are particularly fat-filled, while protein actually comes from the egg white. People who smoke five cigarettes a day have higher cholesterol, and the high amount of fat in egg yolks will apparently lead to the same result.

However, just because you eat an egg a day doesnt automatically make your health equivalent to that of a heavy smoker. The study that led some nutritionists to this conclusion was done on a group of individuals who were already sick and at risk for high cholesterol.

Maria Luz Fernandez, a professor at the University of Connecticut in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, has used her expertise in the field to help skeptics question this bold assertion. Eggs should not be eliminated from the diet because they not only provide a substantial amount of nutrients, but they also have health benefits that go beyond nutrition, Fernandez said in an interview with Best Food Facts.

Other claims in this film should be taken with a grain of salt as well. Sure, some studies say red meat is bad for you, and it has been proven that eating a vegetarian or vegan diet has numerous environmental benefits. But not all of the assertions made in the documentary can be taken as fact, and these statements can be confusing to Americans trying to navigate their way through the multibillion-dollar weight loss industry.

Should dieters commit to a drastic lifestyle change by going vegan? Should they do something short-term and try the Whole30? Is there any diet that falls somewhere in between?

In the end, a truly sustainable diet is about finding an eating pattern that works for you.

The secret to actually losing weight is not found in a diet like Keto, Paleo, the Whole30, CICO or veganism. It does not matter what diet you decide to do, or if you decide to go on a diet at all. Instead, the key is balancing your activity level with the amount of calories you consume. Find a diet you can stick to so it does not feel like a diet anymore just the way you live.

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Column: Popular diet trends are not the way to lose weight - The Huntington News

Among the specious claims about the role of meat in the history of humanity: A meat-rich diet brings with it a masculine vigor that distinguishes carnivorous races.

Prior to the identification of the micronutrients we call vitamins in the 1930s, nutrition science was mainly a science of animal energetics, or the study of how animals metabolize food into energy. Animal energetics, in turn, was a science of animal starvation. It was also a science of race.

The questions physiologists asked about animal energetics were straightforward: How much energy was required to keep an animal from starving under various conditions (for example, physical regimen, ambient temperature)? How much protein specifically, in the early days, how much meat was required to maintain the animal in nitrogen equilibrium, that is, to ensure that the quantity of nitrogen lost as urea in the urine was equal to that ingested? Efforts to measure metabolic rate by gauging the volume of carbon dioxide expelled in respiration went back at least to the French chemist Antoine Lavoisiers experiments with guinea pigs in the 1780s, but for a long time, respirometry remained cumbersome and subject to the concern that what an animal did under a respirometer hood did not represent a good approximation to what it did out in the world. So in most labs, the key methods of research into the 1910s were collecting animal waste and fasting animals, often to the death.

A variety of animals were sacrificed by starvation: rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, cats, and dogs. Physiologists were partial to dogs, and canine hunger artists were cited with approval in the energetics literature into the 1950s. A dog in one lab in Tokyo was reported in 1898 to have survived 98 days without food before succumbing, having lost 65 percent of its body mass. Fourteen years later, physiologists at the University of Illinois reported they had fasted their dog Oscar 117 days before ending the experiment: Oscar refused to manifest the increase in excreted nitrogen typical of late-stage morbidity and in fact remained in such good spirits, as his handlers reported, that he had to be restrained as the fast went on from leaping out of and into his cage before and after his daily weighing lest he injure himself.

Humans, of course, could not be involuntarily fasted to the death, but self-experimentation was rampant in the energetics world. After 1890, fasting gained popularity as a health cure and the key to vigor, productivity, Christian virtue, masculinity, and racial superiority. Interest in fasting cures continued into the 1920s even as fasting gave way, in energetics research, to respirometric studies of resting metabolic rate and controlled trials of calorie restriction.

While humans couldnt be involuntarily fasted to death in the name of research, a variety of animals were: rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, cats, and dogs.

The practical aims of animal energetics were twofold. One was to improve feed conversion in livestock and, more broadly, to formulate generalizations about the relationship between body size and basal metabolic rate. The other was to understand the energy and protein needs of humans under different occupations. To most of the people involved in the debate around these questions, the underlying policy concern was clear: How much meat did you need to maintain an industrial labor force? not to say a modern army and navy.

Around 1900, conventional wisdom held that active men required between 100 and 120 grams of protein a day at a minimum a grossly high estimate predominantly from animal sources, and an energy intake in the vicinity of 3,000 kcal. Periodically, reports would emerge of people getting by on considerably less a community of fructarians in California, say but these reports were mostly ignored.

The dominant voice in this conversation was that of German physiologist Carl von Voit. Voits laboratory at Munich had pioneered a number of the techniques then becoming standard in the physiology labs of the United States and Japan, notably the use of nitrogen equilibrium as a proxy for protein needs. Voit clove to a figure of 118 grams (4 ounces) of protein per day for a man of 70 kilograms (154 pounds) doing light work. This struck Yale physiologist Russell Chittenden as nonsense. In 1902 Chittenden undertook a series of clinical studies to demonstrate that 50 to 55 grams (2 ounces) of protein a day, and a considerably reduced energy intake, would keep young men in vigor and nitrogen balance indefinitely.

Chittenden put groups of Yale athletes and newly inducted U.S. Army soldiers (N of eight and 13, respectively) on carefully controlled diets and exercise regimens and observed them over a period of months their food intake, their excreta, and their performance on various measures of fitness. He also kept notes on his own food intake and physical activity. The diets in question were experimental only in the sense that portions and protein content were controlled. In other respects, the food was ordinary and not especially healthy (lunch for the soldiers for one week included hamburgers, macaroni and cheese, clam chowder, bean porridge, and beef stew).

Opinion was divided as to the significance of his findings. One contemporary praised Chittendens rigor but thought it was too soon to attribute participants physical achievements to diet, since there was no control for the independent effects of the regimented way of life implicated in the experiments. Fifty years later, the nutritional biochemist Henry Sherman would hail Chittendens work as a breakthrough in understanding just how elastic the human response to protein is. Others regarded Chittendens results as a curiosity. But there were those who saw Chittendens work as anathema.

Chief among these was Major D. McCay, a professor of physiology in Calcutta. McCay, on the basis of long observation in India and a series of experiments with the diets of prisoners in Bengal, argued that Chittendens conclusions were not just wrong but dangerously so, for they undermined the clear connection between a diet rich in animal protein and the masculine vigor of the more advanced races. There is little doubt, he writes, that the evidence of mankind points indisputably to a desire for protein up to European standards.

As soon as a race can provide itself with such amounts, he adds, it promptly does so; as soon as financial considerations are surmounted, so soon the so-called vegetarian Japanese or Hindu raises his protein intake to reach the ordinary standard of mankind in general.

Do we know, for example, how far the change from the omnivorous diet to the vegetarian can be carried with impunity? asked Cornell biochemist William Adolph. Many of our blessings in health and vigor are, nutritionally speaking, related to animal protein.

That is, McCay argues, it is meats income elasticity that determines its rate of consumption. As soon as a race achieves the income necessary to support a meat-rich diet presumably by adopting the industrial labor discipline of Europeans its meat consumption shoots up and, with it, the masculine vigor that distinguishes meat-eating races everywhere. Writing a hundred years later, the geographer Vaclav Smil puts it another way: As soon as incomes rise, the cultural constructs of pre-industrial societies fall away.

With time, the tone of arguments like McCays changes. Talk of race becomes more muted, but concern about the implications of a vegetarian diet for national development persists. For Cornell biochemist William Adolph, writing toward the end of World War II, the protein problem of China was that for the 85 to 90 percent of the population living in the countryside, the diet was basically vegetarian. More precisely, 95 percent of the protein in the rural diet came from plant sources. Plant-source proteins, Adolph frets, are inferior both in that they are less easily digested and in that the protein they provide is lower in biological value; today we would say its Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score is lower. He expresses surprise at the success of the Chinese peasants he has observed in devising combinations of plant proteins that exceed those of any of the constituents another case of blind experimentation, examples of which are wide-spread throughout Asia. But his experiences in China do not leave him sanguine about the possibilities of diet modification in the United States in service of the war effort: Do we know, for example, how far the change from the omnivorous diet to the vegetarian can be carried with impunity? Many of our blessings in health and vigor are, nutritionally speaking, related to animal protein.

Today we are faced with the opposite question: How far can the change to a carnivorous diet be carried with impunity? In the nutritional niche characteristic of emerging urban markets, growing meat consumption masks, and perhaps makes possible, growing precariousness.

Josh Berson is an independent social scientist. He has held research appointments at the Berggruen Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, among other places. He is the author of The Meat Question, from which this article is adapted.

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Race and the Science of Starvation - The MIT Press Reader

Fresh Corner Caf sells loose fruits and fresh pre-packaged items like salads, sandwich wraps and fruit cups to corner stores, grocery stores and gas stations. Courtesy of Valaurian Waller hide caption

Fresh Corner Caf sells loose fruits and fresh pre-packaged items like salads, sandwich wraps and fruit cups to corner stores, grocery stores and gas stations.

On a cold, sunny day in early February, Raphael Wright and his business partner, Sonya Greene, check out a vacant building in Detroit's Linwood neighborhood. Inside, wood panels are on the floor, and drywall is being placed over exposed brick. The only clue to the building's past is a sign out front, with the words "Liquor, Beepers, and Check Cashing."

Located on the west side of Detroit, the Linwood neighborhood remains underdeveloped, with few retail businesses, countless empty lots and many vacant buildings. But Wright and Greene see potential here. It's why they've chosen this neighborhood to open a bodega that sells healthy food. Like other neglected neighborhoods in urban areas, fresh fruits and vegetables aren't a basic necessity here they're a luxury.

Wright says it's been that way since he was a kid.

"I was raised in the '90s, and I always say that we were junk food babies," he explains. "So we only ate our full courses out of liquor stores, gas stations, and many times fast food restaurants were pretty much our go-to places to eat."

Wright learned at a young age the cost of a diet based on convenient, processed foods.

"I'm a victim of food insecurity," he says. "I'm 30 years old. I was diagnosed with diabetes at 19, so before I was old enough to have a drink, I was diabetic."

Wright wants the bodega, tentatively named the Glendale Mini Mart, to be a pilot for a full-range grocery store he hopes to open in the future. The bodega will offer fresh produce, prepared foods and staple items. He says he hopes it will be part of a larger mixed-use development that will include a barber shop, a beauty salon and housing.

"This is my opportunity to not only service a community, but to show proof of this new, fresh concept of how to introduce healthier food access in our communities," Wright says.

Wright and Greene are not the first to recognize the importance of Detroit's African American residents having access to fresh, reasonably priced food. That awareness began more than 50 years ago, following the rebellion that rocked the city.

In late July 1967, one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in this country's history took place in the Virginia Park neighborhood of Detroit. What started as a confrontation between black residents and the Detroit Police Department lasted five days and resulted in the deaths of 43 people. More than 2,000 buildings were looted, burned or destroyed.

The riots were the culmination of high levels of frustration, resentment and anger among African Americans due to unemployment, poverty, racial segregation, police brutality and lack of economic and education opportunities. However, there was something else not often discussed food.

Sonya Greene and Raphael Wright want to open a bodega that will offer fresh produce, prepared foods and staple items in an underdeveloped neighborhood. Brittany Hutson/WDET hide caption

Sonya Greene and Raphael Wright want to open a bodega that will offer fresh produce, prepared foods and staple items in an underdeveloped neighborhood.

According to Alex Hill, adjunct professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, there was a "fairly expansive hunger issue in the community" around that time. Hill's research on the '67 Rebellion looks at food, power and race. In many ways, it's the continuation of work that began when the non-profit group Focus: Hope began studying conditions in Detroit's black neighborhoods in the '60s as a response to the riots.

Focus: HOPE educated the clergy and the white Christian community on racism, poverty and other forms of injustice. In 1968, the organization released a Consumer Survey on Food and Drugs. The survey sought to answer three questions: Do the poor pay more for food? Does skin color affect in-store service? Are food facilities and products equal for inner city and suburban shoppers?

To get answers, nearly 400 suburban white women and inner-city black women were trained as undercover shoppers and sent to 300 grocery stores in the Detroit metro area. The main findings were that poor inner-city Detroiters were paying up to 20% more for lower-quality groceries. The survey also found that the quality of service, store condition, produce and meats in the city's chain and independent stores were not of average quality compared to upper- income and suburban stores.

The conclusion of the survey provided a few recommendations, some of which included a massive consumer education program targeting the poor and poor African Americans; negotiations with major chains to build new stores in certain impoverished areas; renovations of existing stores and equipment; and hiring African American personnel, particularly managers.

It is unknown if there was any response to the survey.

Hill says today, the choices available to black and white shoppers are still unequal. "In thinking about those disparities and access, those are still very much real. They may look different, but I'd say they're very much the same from 1967," he says.

Hill explains that Detroiters travel outside of the city on weekends to larger chain grocers to stock up and use their local grocer for smaller needs, such as eggs or milk, during the week.

"We often don't think about the cost of time for Detroit residents to reach these locations," he says. "Transportation is a kind of regular conversation that's had in the city that makes it very difficult to access food of different types."

In Detroit, most grocery stores in the city are independently owned. According to the 2018 Detroit Food Metric Report, there are 71 full-scale grocery stores in the city, but only two types of chain stores Whole Foods and Meijer. In a city that is 142 square miles and still predominantly African American, none of the grocery stores is black-owned.

The Fight Against Food Insecurity

Valaurian Waller is the co-owner of Fresh Corner Caf, which sells pre-packaged items such as salads, sandwich wraps and fruit cups to corner stores, grocery stores and gas stations.

"People like to call Detroit a food desert and it's not," she says. "It's somewhat of a misnomer. There's food in Detroit, it's just kind of hard to get to."

One of Waller's partners is Peaches and Greens, a produce market in Detroit's New Center neighborhood. The store sells pantry items, dry goods, snacks, and other locally made food products. Fresh Corner works directly with stores like Peaches and Greens. It also works with schools, the YMCA and senior housing developments.

"Fresh Corner had this idea to kind of cut out the middleman and bring fresh food options to places people already go and have easy access to anyways," Waller says. "If you're going down to your corner store to shop for a few food things, it makes sense to come to you."

Waller grew up on the east side of Detroit, but went to middle school and high school in Grosse Pointe, an affluent suburb northeast of Detroit with a history of discriminatory real estate practices. While in school, Waller noticed the jarring differences in food access between the two areas.

"The difference between a Kroger in Detroit and the Kroger in Grosse Pointe is laughable," she says. "Just seeing the juxtaposition of those two worlds and those experiences really inspired me to be like, there has to be a solution to this. There has to be awareness of the inequality in these issues."

Back at the site of the future Glendale Mini Mart, Greene walks along the front of the building. She is a registered nurse who grew up in Linwood. The property has been in her family for at least 40 years, and she bought the building from her family to start the store. Greene says there's always been a need in Linwood for healthy food.

"It has to start with the education component," she says. "That's pretty much what this is about. It's teaching with love and understanding and saying, 'Yeah, we know that you've not had an option but we're here to give you something else to choose from.'"

Wright says the bodega is also about representation.

"We've seen our grocery stores not be representative of our communities," he says. "So putting faces in the community that looked like us, that are from our neighborhoods and understand what we're going through, it makes the education part easier."

This story comes to us from member station WDET in Detroit. You can hear the audio here. Brittany Hutson is a writer and freelance journalist and was a WDET Feet In 2 Worlds Fellow. Follow her on Twitter: @fedandbougie

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Detroit Entrepreneurs Fight Food Insecurity With Lessons Of The Past - NPR

Tim Sweeney may seem like your average guy. He likes hiking, tinkering with technology, the occasional Diet Coke, and fried chicken from Bojangles'.

However, he is anything but average. Sweeney is the CEO of Epic Games, the company behind "Fortnite" the popular battle-royale-style video game that raked in over $2.5 billion in 2018. Epic Games also brought games like "Gears of War" into the mainstream.

Sweeney has a net worth of $7 billion,millions of which he has donated to forest conservation efforts.

When it comes to tech execs, Sweeney is one who remains rather low-key. He's single, unmarried, and doesn't have any kids. And he's never been enticed by the flashy trappings of Silicon Valley: Epic Games is based out of Cary, North Carolina, just down the road from Raleigh.

Sweeney's first-ever job is still his current job, though the responsibilities have changed since founding Epic Games in 1991. Overall, Sweeney describes his life as "simple." If he means a simple life that has also radically changed the way millions of people play video games online, then, sure a simple life indeed.

Here's everything you need to know about Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games.

Link:
The life and rise of Tim Sweeney, the billionaire CEO and founder of the company behind 'Fortnite,' Epic Games - Business Insider