It’s about time…weight, that is
Findings from a new study suggest that time of day may play a critical role in how much weight you do or do not gain. In fact, you may be better off eating fat first thing upon waking as opposed to at the end of the day.
Mind you, this study was conducted in mice and not humans, so it’s way too early to know for sure. However, what they found that was when mice were fed a high-fat diet constantly throughout a waking period, they did not gain substantial amounts of weight, body fat or develop unusually high blood sugar. In fact, they appeared to adjust their metabolism accordingly. However, when mice were fed either high fat or carbohydrate rich diets at different times during the day, the paradigm shifted and their bodies were not always able to adjust metabolically. Here’s the skinny:
- Mice who ate a calorically-rich, high-fat meal immediately following the four hours after waking were able to adjust their metabolism and the amount of energy they used up so that weight remained normal. However,
- Mice who ate a calorically-rich, high-carbohydrate meal in the first four hours after wakening and then a high-fat meal four hours before rest had gained excessive amounts of weight and body fat, had blood sugar abnormalities associated with diabetes, and had increased levels of fats in the blood. Ironically this occurred regardless of total daily calories or total calories from fat.
The researchers say there is plenty of evidence showing that people who skip breakfast tend to have higher a body-mass index (BMI), as do people who engage in night eating. They also note that like the mice in the study, our circadian clocks do play a huge role in both our appetite and how we expend calories during the course of a day. Although individuals tend to vary how and what they eat throughout any given day, there is a tendency to eat carbohydrates early in the day and higher fat or more calorie dense meals later. So, it’s possible by reversing this pattern, we may be able to affect how we respond to carbohydrate rich meals (and associated weight gain) later in the day.
Granted, only time can tell and it’s essential to repeat this study in human. Plus there’s another fact that women in particular need to be aware of: hormones and age play a critical role in controlling metabolism, and how, when and where we gain weight.
Right now, the best strategy is to eat healthy foods, unsaturated fats and exercise. But if you are craving bacon, you may want to have it in the morning and not in a BLT or wrapped around a scallop later in the day.
Read MoreIn celebration of women…more of my conversation with chef/author Mollie Katzen
It’s International Women’s Day. A day to celebrate women of all ages, races, ethnicity and religion, to celebrate women as essential and relevant beings. Yet, as I write today in a post on Women Grow Business, although women are more engaged and successful than ever, the woman in the mirror might not have much to say about the fact that her image is likely disappearing right before her eyes — just as she’s reaching the pinnacle of her career. In fact, in a ‘visual culture’ like ours’, where youth and beauty are often valued more than experience and ‘foundation,’ many women find that they eventually cease to exist.
The Woman Grow Business post primarily focuses on how ageism affects our careers and the steps we can take to overcome inherent societal challenges. My friend, chef/author Mollie Katzen, played an important role in shaping that post. In fact, it evolved out of an initial conversation that we had when we were discussing women, food and aging.
However, I’d like to share some additional insights that Mollie lends to concept of the disappearing woman. Let’s face it: although we live in a society that is “no country for old women,” [Credit for tag – Sadhbh Walshe, guardian.co.uk] perhaps we can shift the societal gaze to within and not without. Like Mollie, I know a number of middle-aged women who feel the need to adjust their physical appearance in order to compete. The gambit runs from hair color and botox to face lifts and labiaplasty. The question is, are these things taking time and focus away from our work (or who we are)? Granted, I color my hair and have been doing so for decades. I am not ready to embrace my gray. Does this mean that I am not ready to embrace myself or that I am somehow exacerbating my disappearing act?
Mollie is fortunate in that her chosen career is one of the few where, she says, “women are not only allowed to age but that [age] is seen as an enhancement to credibility.” However, she suggests that the more women are out there looking their age, the likelier it is for older women to do so.
However, here’s the rub: What does your age look like?
Mollie says that throughout her life, she’s been greatly helped by Gloria Steinem’s famous quote when told she didn’t look 40: “this is what 40 looks like,” said Steinem. “That phrase has been my mantra,” explains Mollie; “this is what I look like.”
For me personally, this gives me permission to dress in ways that make me feel good about myself, and perhaps even color my hair to reinforce that feeling. Mollie concurs: “instead of hoping to look 35, try looking your best for who you are. Emphasizing that she dislikes and tries to avoid platitudes at all costs, Mollie agreed to share a few strategies that she and her friends have created. “They seem like small things,” says Mollie, “but they make a huge difference in how you come across:”
- Posture! The first sign of “older” is often stooped shoulders. Standing tall conveys confidence and strength. “Anyone who is not attracted to that is someone you don’t need in your life.”
- Keep a focused gaze. “Looking sharp sharpens, Mollie explains. “Glazing over glazes you over.”
- “A smile is the best and cheapest face lift. Especially when it is genuine; your smile, not theirs.”
- Breathe deeply. Then speak. “When you do speak, let your voice come from your abdomen and be fueled by that deep breath.” (This isn’t easy, btw.)
- “Don’t ask your sentences unless they are questions.” (Remember Valley Girl by Frank Zappa?)
- “Try to find the love in all situations.” (I need work on this!). Mollie explains that in most cases, this needs to come from within. “Recognize that sometimes that love can take the form of putting up a boundary. Recognize also, that putting up that boundary can be cloaked in warmth and humor, even while you are being assertive.” She adds that “true personal power can be a warming and loving representation.”
Additionally, perhaps we need focus more on playing up our strengths and working on self-acceptance. “Develop your own style of centering and use it to solidify,” advises Mollie. “Change or leave bad relationships.” (This could also refer to bad business relationships.) Seek support.
Platitudes or reality? As middle-aged women, can’t we create (or redefine) our reality. Most successful revolutions start with small steps. Our evolution as women depends on it.
Read MoreStirring the pot: a conversation with author/chef Mollie Katzen on food, women and aging
Just about anyone who’s interested in cooking and whose formative years took place in the late 60s and 70s knows these names: Moosewood Cookbook and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen. Personally, both of these volumes occupied prominent places on my bookshelves for years. That is, until worn from overuse and stained with food and memories, I reluctantly let them go.
So, what do cooking and midlife and menopause have to do with each other? And what type of insights can chef and author Mollie Katzen lend to the conversation?
I originally approached Mollie in search of nutrition advice for women going through midlife and menopause. Although I realize that she isn’t a dietician or a nutritionist, as someone who’s immersed herself in food for decades, she seemed quite capable to lend a perspective. But as our conversation took hold and we found our rhythm, I realized that the focus had shifted: what I ended up with was a mini-instruction manual, not only for eating healthy but also for forming and maintaining positive relationships with food and with ourselves.
A champion of “keep it healthy,” Mollie entered the scene when cookbooks were largely geared towards the typical American meat and potato diet. When the Moosewood Cookbook first hit the shelves, “there was barely even a cookbook section in the bookstore, let alone, a ‘healthy eating’ or ‘vegetarian’ section,” explains Mollie. Yet, she is not what many of us classify as “vegetarian,” and although she primarily skews the dinner plate towards greens and veggies, she consistently includes small amounts of animal protein. “My diet in my 30s and 40s could have been classified as practically vegan,” she says, “even if I wasn’t orthodox about it.” (At that time, she was also keen on a low-fat diet, which, coupled with the lack of ample amounts of protein, spelled trouble.) “It was almost ‘remorse cuisine;’ I’d eat this way and by mid-afternoon I’d almost be fainting, depleted, irritable. I had no focus. I found that I wasn’t functioning and would wonder what was wrong with me because I thought I was eating the purest diet on the planet. I felt like I was falling apart.”
If you are familiar with the earlier editions of Mollie’s books, they concentrate heavily on whole grains and legumes. However, age has paved a path for a significant alteration in what she eats. Emphasizing that the amount of bulgar and beans she’d have to eat to obtain the amount of protein that she needs for her blood sugar to stay stable could easily translate into an extra 50 pounds, Mollie says that she has changed her diet to include grass-fed animal protein and raw milk cheese, milk and butter.
What about aging and diet? “I think that women get really frustrated,” she says, pointing out that as we age, even if we change nothing about our lifestyles, e.g., if our lifestyle is reasonable, we are of fairly normal weight, exercise moderately and eat pretty well, we still gain weight. “Our bodies become an inefficient machine and our metabolisms slow,” she says, adding that one of the most consistent things she’s observed amongst her friends is the “oh my god, what happened to my body” moment. The ‘I’m minding my business, doing the same things I’ve always done and all of a sudden, I’ve got this spare tire, I’ve got the fat” epiphany. Sound familiar?!
Although challenging, the answer to this common dilemma is fairly intuitive. And while we’d love to fool ourselves into believing that declining hormones are the primary culprits, they aren’t. Rather a decline in physical activity and lack of dietary restraint are the key players. Mollie agrees that while women can’t do a whole lot about the fat redistribution, the “one thing [they] need in order to keep the [weight gain] at bay is to keep muscles toned as possible with resistance exercise and also, eat less.” New flash! This actually works; Mollie reports that she currently weighs the same as she did in her 20’s!
Of course, what works for one woman might not be exactly what works for another. We all need to forge our dietary paths and strategies that work for both our individual metabolism and our bodies.
“Health is trial and error,” Mollie explains. “So much of it shows up in how you feel a few hours later. For example, do you feel sleepy after you’ve eaten? Do you feel sluggish or irritable later in the day? Do you have trouble sleeping at night? For me, these were all symptoms of what was going on when I was eating almost no fat or protein.” Much in line with health and nutrition experts, Molllie’s strategy has been to reduce her daily caloric intake while at the same time increasing the percent of calories in her diet that are fat. “I get a good 30% of my calories from nuts, olive oil, avocado and fatty fish.” And when she snacks, its the good fats that she reaches for: “avocados and nuts, especially walnuts. When I am hungry, I have a handful of almonds. I just think that for people as they get older, they should lose the pretzels and eat almonds or guacamole or something with good fat in it.”
We also need to slow down. Bet you’ve heard that before! Mollie says that the most radical transformation we can make with food isn’t so much changing what we eat but how we eat it. Her advice? “Don’t even pick up the fork for the first minute that the food is served. Breathe deeply, look at it, admire it, thank the cook, be grateful. Then pick up your fork, take a few bites and put your fork down. Swallow your food. Women simply don’t have the metabolic ability to do a good job with all that food.”
Food heals. As women, our love-hate relationship with food is complex. We not only use food as fuel, but also to feed our emotions. Or on the flipside, we deprive ourselves in ways that are counterintuitive and sometimes, downright unhealthy.
“This sounds so obvious,” says Mollie, “but I really want people to turn towards cooking and not away from it. To me, the more hands-on and proactive we are about food and cooking, the more we heal whatever issues or concepts we have around food. I’ve actually seen people healing their relationship with food by diving into it.” Make food one of your favorite hobbies. She suggests that rather instead of shunning away from the grocery store run, step back and make it a trip to pick up something beautiful to be celebrated. “Diving into a more positive, deliberate relationship with food gives you something nice to do,” she adds.
What are the take-away messages?
- Tailor it uniquely: keep it healthy.. for you.
- Move towards healthier choices and use food in a healing, more positive manner.
- Embrace yourself with beautiful food, whether it’s a perfect tomato from the Farmer’s Market or some kick-ass, green-as-grass guacamole.
- Take it slow, and breathe.
Wise words, from a wise woman who knows her way around a kitchen or two.
p.s. Mollie has shared two of her favorite recipes. Check them out, try them out and please, comment and show some love!
About Mollie:
Mollie Katzen, with over 6 million books in print, is listed by the New York Times as one of the best-selling cookbook authors of all time. A 2007 inductee into the prestigious James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame, and largely credited with moving healthful vegetarian food from the “fringe” to the center of the American dinner plate, Ms. Katzen has been named by Health Magazine as one of “The Five Women Who Changed the Way We Eat.”
In addition she is a charter member of the Harvard School of Public Health Nutrition Roundtable and an inaugural honoree of the Natural Health Hall of Fame. An award-winning illustrator and designer as well as best-selling cookbook author and popular public speaker, Mollie Katzen is best known as the creator of the groundbreaking classics Moosewood Cookbook, and The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Her other books include the award-winning children’s cookbook trilogy, Pretend Soup,Honest Pretzels, and Salad People; Vegetable Heaven (winner of the International Cookbook Reveu Best in Category award); Sunlight Café; Eat, Drink, & Weigh Less (with Walter Willett, MD of Harvard), and the best-selling The Vegetable Dishes I Can’t Live Without.
Read MoreWhen it comes to physical fitness, forget the hormones
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnVT0HGVNwY&feature=related]
Hey. We’re all going to get there one day – slowing down, lower coordination, challenged balance, right? Hmm, maybe not. At least I’d like to think that it’s possible to delay or stave off the natural physical decline of aging. So what’s the deal anyhow?
Estrogen strikes again!
Declining levels of estrogen as a women ages are linked to changes within the body that directly affect physical function. And like many other age-related changes that occur, hormone therapy has been overpromised as a panacea for physical functioning. In fact, for years, women have been advised the hormone therapy might benefit and even improve overall functioning. Yet, reports supporting this particular benefit of hormone therapy have been inconsistent, with some showing improvements and other, actually showing detriment.
The latest evidence to emerge against hormone therapy comes from a comprehensive analysis of 2,400 older postmenopausal women who had taken HRT or placebo tablet. The women had all been part of the the Women’s Health Initiative Study, which, as you may recall, was halted when HRT was found to increase the risk for heart attack, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer.
In the analysis, women were assessed for physical function (i.e., grip strength, chair stand – the number of times a woman could stand up from a chair without using her arms and timed walk – the time it took to walk a 6-meter course) at the study’s start, and at 1, 3 and 6 years.
What they found.
Over the study’s course:
- Grip strength declined by 12%
- Chair stands declined by 3.5%
- Walk pace slowed by 11.4%
- No differences in physical function were seen in women taking HRT compared to those who had taken placebo
The overall conclusion? Hormones will not slow or benefit physical declines that occur as we age.
So, are we all doomed?
Studies suggest that to stave off physical declines as we age, we need to keep moving! Walking for 30 minutes a day can help to maintain bone strength. Yoga and bo su can help build and maintain balance. Tai Chi or Chi Gung can assist with focus and keep those muscles suppple. Whatever you do, it’s a use it or lose it proposition.
What’s your strategy?
Want to read more? Reuter’s Health has an excellent write-up on this study. (Special thanks to Executive Editor Ivan Oransky for pointing me to these data.)
Read MoreNews Flash! Just a spit away…
Have you ever wondered if joint aches, memory lapses, dry mouth and other disorders are signs of aging or actually signs of pending illness? Take heart. Scientists have learned that the protein content of the saliva changes as women age and that some of these changes may actually be markers of disease, in particular, diseases in which the immune system attacks itself, such as lupus.
In a study published in a recent issue of the Journal of Proteome Research, researches analyzed proteins in saliva samples taken from 532 healthy women between the ages of 20 and 30 and 55 and 65. They found that about half of the protein types were unique in the particular age group. What’s more, older women had almost twice as many immune-type proteins in their saliva than their younger peers. The results remained even after the researchers factored in such things as age, time that the saliva was collected and whether or not the women were menopausal.
Not only researchers hope that proteins in saliva will prove to be useful in diagnosing risk of certain diseases, but they are also investigating ways in which they might be used in tests that will make diagnosis and treatment of certain age-related diseases in women easier. Saliva for example, is far more accessible and less invasive than a blood prick.
Could easier disease diagnosis be only a spit away? What a salicious thought.
Read MoreArchives
Tags
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.