FreeDietTips.com Blog

By Cathy Thomas, Orange County Register
Original story can be seen at:  http://www.ocregister.com/articles/-278383–.html

Judith Norton is someone who gets things done. My longtime friend envisions creative solutions where others just see quandaries. If a task requires endless energy, that’s never a problem.

Before the holiday season last year, her Weight Watchers group was developing strategies to avoid packing on pounds at parties.

Norton, an accomplished cook and a senior corporate trainer, thought it would be a great if members had a collection of healthy recipes that could be used for holiday entertaining. To make sure everyone understood how delicious and easy-to-make the recipes she had chosen were, she invited them to her home for a cooking party. A sign-up list for ingredients was circulated at the meeting, so everyone contributed to the cost of the event. And when they showed up, all the components for each dish were ready at stations inside and on the patios of her Huntington Beach home.

I wangled an invitation to this year’s cookathon, what she calls the second “healthful cooking adventure.” Twenty participants showed up the rainy Saturday before Thanksgiving. With the oh-so-wet patios off limits, Norton improvised work areas in her garage as well as her kitchen.

They divided into groups and set out to tackle 12 recipes.

“This close-knit group has been together for over two years, and they are really unique. They are so supportive of one another and they interact so well,” said Lorraine Clausen, the Weight Watchers leader of Norton’s group that meets in Long Beach. “The event shows that you can give a party and not overdo.”
Joining the faction in the kitchen, I watched as Norton gave a quick tutorial on poaching salmon. She explained that she uses a turkey roasting pan that has a lid because she doesn’t like to buy specialized pieces of equipment if she already owns something that works.

“Everyone thinks it’s difficult to poach salmon, but it is so easy,” she said lopping off a small portion of tail end and wrapping the skin-off salmon fillet in a double layer of cheesecloth (creating handles with excess cheesecloth on both ends). She lowered the fish into the roaster, submerging it in a mixture of water, white wine and fresh dill. She placed the pan over two burners and put on the lid. She turned the burners on high and set a timer for 12 minutes.

“If it isn’t cooked after 12 minutes, you can always return it to the pan and cook it some more,” she said.

Without missing a beat, she removed cold poached salmon from the refrigerator. It had some fissures in it, but she instructed the team to fill those in with sauce and adorn with garnishes. She assured them it would look gorgeous.

Judy Gesicki, Veronica Espinoza and Pat Norton joined Clausen to make two slathering sauces as well as thinly slicing cucumbers and limes to use as garnish.

In the garage, three teams were hard at work. One was making cold avocado soup to be served in shot glasses, another making flatbread atop strips of thin lavash. Another was making beet-boosted hummus and red pepper dip to be served with toasted pita triangles.

Soup-makers Lupe Hemauer and Cheryl Carter took advice from Peggy Giavanti and added more coconut milk. Hummus-makers Kris Margetts and Angie Ocheltree pureed, sampled and seasoned. Ocheltree told me she has lost 107 pounds in the Weight Watchers program.

Mary Holzgang and her team assembled flatbreads at a station that was popular; everyone seemed to stop by to put their signature on these tasty appetizers.

Soon the flatbreads were out of the oven. Piping hot, the cheese had melted around the figs and melded with caramelized onion. The scent was divine.

Everyone sampled, then moved on to create more dishes: coconut shrimp, goat cheese with spicy peach sauce, some skewered chicken with satay sauce and a salad with fuyu persimmon, jicama and mango. Plus, a lemony dessert with angel food cake.

The dessert group looked puzzled. They didn’t have a recipe, just a tray with ingredients. Norton explained that the dish was so simple, no recipe was required. She told them she had seen Giada De Laurentiis do a similar dish on TV. But instead of making a lemon sponge cake from scratch, Giada-style, they were going to use store-bought angel food.

After they cut the cake into cubes, Norton added nonfat Greek yogurt, lemon zest and juice, and agave syrup to taste. Nothing was measured – she simply added, tasted and added more as needed. I sampled. It had an irresistible, tart, lemon pie kind of flavor.

Spooned into shot glasses, each dessert was garnished with a little whipped cream.

The team arranged the buffet on a huge table in her neighbor’s garage.

Standing behind the table, the group squeezed in for a photograph.

“We’re all so thin from Weight Watchers, that’s why we can fit behind this table,” Giavanti said with a giggle.

Soon their plates held the fruits of their labor, a glorious assortment of holiday fare.

Me? I was eating from a rubber spatula, cleaning the bowl that held the remnants of that lemony dessert.

No one saw. Probably wrong, but I couldn’t help it.

Recipe: Judith’s Poached Salmon
Recipe: Mustard Sauce
Recipe: Flatbread With Caramelized Onion, Fig and Fontina Cheese
Recipe: Goat Cheese With Spicy Peach Sauce
Recipe: Coconut Shrimp
Recipe: Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Recipe: Golden Hummus
Recipe: Skewered Chicken With Satay Sauce

If you’re like most of my friends in the popular Weight Watchers diet program, you’ve memorized the point count for every food you eat. But now you’re going to have to start over.

For the uninitiated, Weight Watchers assigns points for every portion of every food you eat.  One of the things that makes the diet program so popular is that you can eat anything you like — as long as you don’t exceed your allocated number of points. Weight Watchers has modified the program a bit, to encourage dieters to spend their points on healthier and less calorie-dense foods.

Now the program is getting a major change.  The new ProPoints system has been very popular in central Europe, where it was given a trial launch last year.  On  Friday Nov. 12 and Wednesday Nov. 17  (news so good it can’t be given all at once?) Weight Watchers is telling health reporters to gear up for a major announcement.  That announcement, already made at a stock analyst’s meeting in February, is that Weight Watchers is going to launch ProPoints in North America.

So what are ProPoints?  According to what the company is telling UK reporters, it tells you “the amount of energy that is available in food after you’ve eaten it.”  The system calculates points based on an individual’s sex, age, weight, and height.  Calculators already available as smartphone apps will calculate ProPoints for you once you’ve input these factors along with the weight and specific type of food you’d like to eat.

Food manufacturers who feature Weight Watcher points on package labels are expected to start listing the foods new ProPoint values.

Weight Watchers says the change is needed because new scientific knowledge about energy balance has made the old system outdated.  At news conferences for the financial press, WeightWatchers executive say the ProPoints program has been increasing business.  They hope the same will happen in the U.S., where business has been flagging.

WebMD has analyzed the Weight Watchers program and has found it to be among the most effective systems for losing weight.  It is a successful combination of watching what you eat,  avoiding hunger, emphasizing healthy eating, increasing exercise, and — a crucial ingredient — community support.

It remains to be seen whether the new point system will catch on with  North American weight watchers. But if blogs from Europe are any indication, the new system is likely to become quite popular — even if all my friends will have to learn a new point system.

Source:  Daniel J. DeNoon, Senior Medical Writer, WebMD

Ben Pierzina of Onalaska, Wisconsin, has lost 100 pounds in six months by following Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet, the popular weight-loss regimen created by renowned physician, author, and weight-loss expert Sanford Siegal, D.O., M.D., in 1975.  Beginning at 280 pounds, Pierzina is now a svelte 180 pounds and says he looks and feels like a new man.

“I’ve treated more than 500,000 overweight patients during the past fifty years and have had more dramatic success stories than I can possibly count, yet I never get tired of hearing stories such as Benny’s,” said Dr. Siegal. “Seven times over the past six months, he has posted updates of his progress in the Fan Mail section of CookieDiet.com (www.CookieDiet.com/testimonials), and after each one I’ve found myself eagerly anticipating the next one.”

Dr. Siegal’s weight-loss success stories have been chronicled over the years in more than 100 major media outlets including Good Morning America, Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, The New York Times, and Fox News. Some, like New York Jets star linebacker Kris Jenkins, have been celebrities and Dr. Siegal’s own patients. Most, however, have been everyday people who overcame obesity by following Dr. Siegal’s plan under their own doctor’s supervision.

“I saw my doctor near the start of my diet and told him what I was planning to do, and he was very encouraging,” said Pierzina. “Obviously, he was anxious for me to lose the weight as soon as possible.”

Sanford Siegal, D.O., M.D., is a practicing physician based in Miami who has achieved notoriety for books on topics such as high fiber diets, controlling hunger without drugs, and hypothyroidism. But he’s best known as “The Cookie Doctor” behind the popular Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet weight-loss system. Dr. Siegal’s latest book, which will be in general release in January, is The Cookie Doctor Cookbook: Countless Combinations of Delicious Meals for Any Calorie-Controlled Lifestyle (2011, Egg & Dart/Dynamic Housewares, ISBN 978-0-9841887-6-5).

On Dr. Siegal’s program, dieters consume 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day, and the typical weight-loss is about 10 pounds per month.

Dr. Siegal conceived the idea of a diet based on a hunger-controlling cookie in the early 1970s while writing a book about natural food substances that are particularly effective at satisfying hunger. After a number of years of experimentation, Dr. Siegal developed a formula for a particular mixture of amino acids that resulted from combining certain food substances. He baked his fla into a cookie and tried it with a few patients. Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet was an immediate success. Soon, his South Florida medical practice had expanded to include 14 clinics.

Hundreds of other physicians have used Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet in their own practices.

“I’ve used Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet for years in my New York City medical practice, and the results have been excellent,” said weight-loss expert and bestselling author Dr. Howard Shapiro.  “Coincidentally, a patient of mine who I’ve had on Dr. Siegal’s program for about six months also reached the 100 pound weight-loss mark last week. He’s a well-known media personality who has been chronicling his progress for his audience since his diet began.”

Dr. Shapiro recently appeared on Good Morning America to discuss his latest book, Eat and Beat Diabetes with Picture Perfect Weight Loss.

Source: PR Newswire

With millions of Americans crossing from the overweight to obese classification each year, it’s no wonder that so many people are looking for an aid to ensure their weight loss success. In addition to diet pills, formulas and bariatric surgery, one of the most popular tools that people use are artificially sweetened beverages.

At first glance this makes sense. After all, a 12 ounce serving of the typical sugary soft drink tips the scales around 150 calories. And most people drink more than one each day. When doing the math, sweetened beverage calories can really have a significant impact on your ability to lose weight. But are diet drinks really the answer?

Diet Drinks Lead to Calorie Misconceptions
The mind is a powerful tool to harness in your quest for weight loss success. It can also lead to failure, especially when using weight loss substitutes such as diet drinks. The problem arises when you consciously make the effort to replace a day’s worth of sweetened beverage calories with a diet alternative. Many people underestimate the number of calories they cut and eat more food thinking they can make up some of the difference.

In reality, research has shown that people take in up to 20% more calories than they eliminate from sweetened drinks. In theory, cutting calories from sugared drinks makes sense, but in reality our brain is accustomed to the extra calories and will ultimately coax you into subconsciously making up the difference. People with rock solid will power may be able to make drink substitution work, but there may still be another problem related to our body’s metabolism of sweets.

Artificial Sweeteners Trick the Brain
Humans have evolved an affinity toward eating sweet foods. From a survival perspective, sweet foods were usually a good source of high energy and helped our early ancestors thrive in an environment void of quick food sources. Today we live in a much different world with easy access to high calorie foods. Our genes are still programmed toward sweet tasting foods and manufacturers are more than willing to infuse our food and drink with massive amounts of sugar.

Artificially sweetened items have been shown to trick our body into thinking other sweet foods don’t have many calories and we are much more inclined to overeat as a consequence. The results of a study published in the International Journal of Obesity and reported on WebMD shows that when subjects are given artificially sweetened drinks over a period of 10 days, they are much more likely to overeat to compensate. Participants allowed to drink sweetened drinks registered the calories and did not overeat as a result.

Make the Switch to Black and Green Tea
Diet drinks are a popular tool used by many people trying to lose weight. Research has shown that they may be ineffective and can actually lead to weight gain. The best plan would be to substitute sugared and artificially sweetened drinks with health promoting tea. Both black and green teas are naturally low in calories and have a direct impact on lowering disease risk. Sweeten with stevia extract for a beverage that increases resting metabolism and can deliver successful weight loss results.

About the Author:
John Phillip is a Diet, Health and Nutrition Researcher/Writer reporting on the cutting edge use of lifestyle modifications to enhance and improve the length and quality of life.

Source: John Phillip, Technorati.com

Abbott Laboratories have removed the weight less drug Meridia (Sibutramine) from the market due to increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

The weight loss drug has been removed from the United States market by its manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories. The company’s decision comes as a result of a request by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority.

The FDA reviewed the results of Abbott Laboratories’ clincial trial of Sibutramine, the Sibutramine Cardiovascular Outcomes Study (SCOUT) and determined that the drug posed a significant risk of an adverse cardiovascular event occuring in patients. This study was a wide ranging double blind trial taking place in Europe, Latin America and Australia and involved 10,000 overweight/obese people with a history of cardiovascular events. The SCOUT results found that patients taking Sibutramine had a 16% increased risk of experiencing a negative cardiovascular event such as a non-fatal heart attack, non-fatal stroke or resusciation after cardiac arrest. For patients taking the drug, the study found that over a five year period, only a small amount of weight loss occurred compared to patients taking a placebo.

Sibutramine was approved by the FDA for use in obese patients, classified as patients with a BMI of more than 30 kg/m2 and additionally for patients with a BMI of 27 kg/m2 who have caridovascular risks. It is intended that the drug is used in combination with a low calorie diet.

In a press release, Abbott Laboratories said that the SCOUT results are an anomaly and 46 controlled clinical trials of sibutramine and over 6 million years of patient use history throughout its 13 year period in the market have not shown the same cardiovascular risk results of taking the drug. The company believes that the risk/benefit levels of the drug are positive and that it should be allowed in the marketplace.

At this stage, the withdrawal of Sibutramine affects the European and U.S. markets only. The FDA advises that patients currently taking Sibutramine (Meridia) should stop taking the drug and discuss alternative options with their health care professionals.

Source: Tracey Lloyd, DigitalJournal.com

Steve Harvey Morning Show announces the host of Family Feud will only drink fruits and vegetables for 21 days

Talk show host Steve Harvey will try the Martha's Vineyard diet

Steve Harvey’s Morning Radio Show reported the talk radio and TV host will be going on the Marta’s Vineyard Diet Detox weight-loss plan and will try to lose 21 lbs in 21 days.  The weight-loss plan consists of a liquid diet for three weeks stimulating metabolism and burning fat at a faster rate.

According to nydailynews.com, “The punishing diet program, based on a bestselling book by Roni De Luz and James Hester called 21 Pounds in 21 Days, encourages disciples to sip fruit and vegetable juices every two hours for three weeks.”

Steve Harvey is also the host of the popular television program, Family Feud.  He hopes his fans will be able to see the results of his diet on the show.

However, there are a lot of skeptics when it comes to such lose weight quick diet schemes.  According to thenewsoftoday.com, “Although, 21 Pounds In 21 Days is incredibly popular, many nutritionists say that it’s not a healthy way to lose weight.”

The Nydailynews.com also reports, “While followers of juice diets may lose weight temporarily, the chances of keeping off those pounds are very slim. Celebrity nutritionist, Christine Avanti said, ‘When you go back to eating regular food, having slowed down your metabolism, you’ll just gain the weight back.’”

Source:  Joe Pascente, CollegeNews.com

 NAPLES, Fla., Oct. 12 In its all-new season, Dr. Phil is tackling more challenges, and helping more guests achieve their personal  dreams of losing weight with meals from BistroMD. On the show airing Tuesday, October 12th, the Dr. Phil housewives are opening up, getting real, and taking the first big steps towards living healthier and happier lives.

Dr. Phil and Erin: Erin's transformation after using BistroMD, what Dr. Phil refers to as the "best home meal delivery available."

This monumental effort isn’t being done alone. Once again, Dr. Phil has turned to the convenient home delivery of BistroMD to help his guests get healthy.

BistroMD is the #1 physician designed weight loss program in the nation, and the plan Dr. Phil himself calls “the best home meal delivery available.”

With a three-month supply of physician-designed gourmet meals delivered to their home, the housewives will get on a plan that will re-train their metabolism, help them lose weight effectively, and get them on the right track of living healthier lives.

“It is always rewarding to see the remarkable transformations that have taken place on the Dr. Phil show,” says Dr. Caroline J. Cederquist, a bariatric physician and the founding physician behind BistroMD. “With chefs preparing our meals, and with convenient home delivery and my expertise, guests on the show, and clients alike, don’t have to sacrifice great taste to lose weight.”

BistroMD has helped many guests on the Dr. Phil show achieve their goals in the past. From helping families cope with childhood obesity, to helping transform the life of a woman named Erin, the meals delivered by BistroMD have truly helped guests achieve their dreams.

To see other life-changing events from the Dr. Phil show, or to get started on achieving your dreams, visit http://www.bistromd.com, or call 1-866-401-DIET.

BistroMD is a leader in gourmet diet delivery offering home delivery of physician-designed, chef-prepared meals as well as free dietitian support to help customers reach their goals. For more information, go to http://www.bistromd.com, or call 1-866-401-DIET.

Contact: Amanda Roebuck Phone: (239) 514-0700 Email: amanda@bistromd.com
SOURCE:  BistroMD via eReleases(R).