No-Nonsense Nutrition Advice...Can You Take It?

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Newswise — We’ve seen the advice a million times. Eat less and exercise more. More fruit and vegetables. Less fast food and fewer french fries. Perfectly sensible nutrition counsel that has been repackaged and foisted upon us for decades, to no avail. We’re still failing miserably at maintaining our health. Enough of the sugar-coated nutrition advice! Here is the no-nonsense need-to-know starter kit for anyone serious about health, fitness and nutrition in 2009, as presented by registered dietitians Suzanne Dixon and Dave Ellis for new functional food company AppleBoost Products Inc. at www.appleboost.com

1. America is a toxic food environment. We’re constantly bombarded by junk food commercials and surrounded by fast food joints. If you think you’re unaffected by food marketing, think again. If you are not seriously committed to healthy eating, you will not eat healthfully.
2. Get real. If maintaining a healthy body weight were easy, two-thirds of American adults wouldn’t be overweight. The older we get, the more work it takes to live lean.
3. Reading food labels will not make you healthy. You don’t need a label to tell you apples, oatmeal, and carrots are good food choices. Avoid highly processed foods like chips, cookies and fast foods and you will be healthier.
4. Don’t drink your calories. We’re wired since the dawn of time to draw calories from food and wash it down with water. With the exception of an occasional glass of wine, 100% fruit juice or similar healthy beverage, avoid the usual diet-busting suspects – soda, fruit punch and energy drinks.
5. Strike a balance. A walk around the block does not burn off a fried chicken dinner. It takes a lot of exercise to burn even 500 calories. A fancy coffee drink can cost you 500 calories!
6. Tune in, turn off: Eating for any reason other than hunger contributes to weight problems. Learn how to tune into your hunger and turn off eating when you sense fullness.
7. If boredom, frustration or anger triggers your eating impulse, you may need the help of a registered dietitian to better understand and gain control over these common catalysts for binge eating.
8. A well-kept secret: People who lose weight to increase energy and improve health stick to their healthier lifestyle more effectively than those dieting simply to look better. Realign your goals for lasting results.
9. Eat early and often. Make it three well-balanced meals and snack in-between on vegetables, fruit, and nuts.
10. When you see someone who looks fit, know that he or she works at it. Very few are born lucky when it comes to the fat loss lottery. Stop the pity party and get moving.
11. Everyone can get healthier. Start by making a 1-day commitment to living healthier; then try to stick with it for 2 days, a week, and then a month. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
12. Quality sleep is a must for effective weight management. Less than 7 hours of sleep means more cortisol produced by the body. Cortisol spurs hunger and tells your body to pile on the pounds in response to stress.
13. Fast food is addictive. No kidding! The sugar, starch, and fat typically found in fast food combo meals trigger the pleasure centers in the brain, which is one reason people return for that next meal. If you can’t envision your life without fast food, you may need to avoid it completely to gain control.
14. The human body responds remarkably well to starvation, which is why crash diets never work. Too little food means a sluggish metabolism. It’s better to eat smaller, healthy meals than to deprive the body of nutrition altogether.
15. A sedentary lifestyle allows virtually no room for error when consuming food. If you can’t find time to exercise regularly, at least try to move around more than usual.

Registered Dietitians Suzanne Dixon and Dave Ellis are health and nutrition advisors to AppleBoost Products at www.appleboost.com.