Good Mood Diet Blog

Hi Everyone,

As we head into Super Bowl Sunday I had some thoughts about the party. It is really easy to get carried away with “traditional” party food. The key to having a successful party while eating The Good Mood Diet way is to follow some basic rules.

• Don’t save your calories by starving yourself earlier in the day. Eat normally earlier so you don’t eat every thing in sight during the game.
• Have some healthier choices for party food. Consider serving recipes from the book like the Turkey Braid, Spinach Tofu Dip and Chocolate Popcorn.
• Don’t eat during the game. This helps prevent nervous, reflexive eating. Rather, eat conciously during half-time.
• Lastly don’t over-do the alcohol! Choose beverages that are low in calories.

I had a conversation with nutritionist Julie Burns this week. She is a consultant for the Chicago Bears, who just happen to be playing some football game this weekend. Our piece about the team's training table is published at msn.com. Here are some "outtakes" from the conversation:

• You won't ever signficantly reduce body fat percentage with eliminating or keeping alcoholic drinks to a couple per week. That's one reason why Dr. Kleiner recommends two weeks off alcohol in the Accelerator phase of the Good Mood Diet, then moderation after that. Julie says a fair share of Bears players simply quit alcohol consumption during the season.


• Some teams fine players for being overweight, which only prompts the players to lose fluids in order to make weight. A better plan (Good Mood Diet, anyone?) is to make changes that allow you to lose pounds that stay off. Julie says eating breakfast helps a lot of athletes control weight when that is an issue.


• Teams like the Bears will create charts with ideal body weight and body fat percentages by position. So a defensive lineman might be quite a bit higher in both categories than, say, those quarteracks they are out to squash. Bears fans who remember 1985 will wonder if William "The Refrigerator" Perry would have even been categorized by weight or body fat percentage. He was clearly one of a kind. That "Fridge" nickname referred to his wide presence on the line, but there were plenty of teammates who claimed Perry deserved the nickname by eating the contents of, oh, one of those huge refrigerators you see in a restaurant or food service cafeteria.

Bob Condor

As the editor of the Good Mood Diet Web site, I have heard many discussions about choosing to use sugar and artificial sweeteners. Here is a summary of what I've heard.

One of the key aspects of The Good Mood Diet is paying attention to how foods affect your body and mood. There's a lot of leeway in the program to balance what you know about yourself with your goals.

The use of artificial sweeteners one area of personal choice. Plenty of people feel strongly about the taste and about the safety of various products. Dr. Kleiner recommends Splenda in recipes to provide a good calorie-reduction choice, but also advises that each person should make the appropriate choice for their own bodies, goals, and opinions.

People who are diabetic or who have strong reactions to sugar should avoid sugar. If using sugar keeps you from achieving your goals, then you may find it worthwhile to adapt to the aftertaste of another sweetener. If you are morbidly obese, using artificial sweeteners as part of a healthy diet is probably less risky than not changing your diet or undergoing invasive surgery. If you can use a little sugar in the morning and still feel good and meet your goals, then that's the right solution for you.

Dr. Kleiner does not recommend using artificial sweeteners in excess. I know this sounds vague, but really, it all comes down to knowing what works for your body, what your goals are, and... moderation.

The members of the online chat group have a lot of good ideas about sweeteners. Check messages 77, 80, and 82 from January for their comments, including a post from Dr. Kleiner.

Liz Diether-Martin,
Editor, The Good Mood Diet Web site, professional technical communicator

Here’s how it happens. There you are idling along, serving samples of your product, and answering routine questions about the St. Jude tuna and its special qualities. Then a certain customer approaches the display and suddenly the questions become challenging. “How do you avoid the contaminated albacore that is present in other widely available products? Why would your omega-3 content be higher than that of albacore in general?”

As the questions continue, it becomes clear that this lady is on an investigation. Suddenly your answers are being judged at a new level - her eyes are intent on yours, looking for hesitation or uncertainty. Break out the bright lights and handcuffs, Susan Kleiner wants to know about your food! I have encountered no one like Susan. After that first encounter in 2002, she took my answers home and researched my replies, then returned with more specific questions.

As individuals, we just can’t seem to find the time to research what we should be eating. Virtually everyone knows the language of our bodies when the message is “I’m hungry. Eat!” Some of us have imposed on that basic message the interpretation: "Eat right!” so that instead of chips or a cheeseburger, we look for “something healthy.” As it happens, I have made a lot of errors in choosing that “something healthy.”

If you have difficulty deciding just what “eat right” means, let Susan help; I know she has done the homework.

Joe Malley,
co-owner of Fishing Vessel St. Jude

I recently wrote about pear-shaped women’s bodies. Now it’s time for my favorite shape: apples!

Apple-shaped women are round in the middle and store most of their subcutaneous fat in front of their bodies and above their thighs. If you haven’t guessed, I am an apple shape. We apples have narrow hips and thick waistlines. We store our extra helpings of food in front of our bodies much more like men than stereotypical women. We also share a higher risk of heart disease from carrying extra fat – more like men. So if you hear conflicting research data about women and disease, remember that some of us aren’t so stereotypically “female” in our calorie storage hormones and that may affect how we respond to therapies and how our bodies react in failing health.

If you wonder if you are a pear or an apple, you can figure it out by putting yourself in this fantasy: If you were to go to a beach in a tiny swimming suit (perhaps very early in the morning before others arrived) and sit there until it got hot enough for you to need a cold drink from the concession stand, what would you do to cover up for the walk among the other people?

Would you pick up your beach towel, shake out the sand, and wrap it around your waist (like a sarong) and saunter over to the concession stand with your bare collarbones (clavicles) and arms showing?

Would you pull on a T-shirt and dash to the concession stand with your bare legs showing?

If you are absolutely a “wrap the towel around you” person, then you are probably pear-shaped. If you are more inclined to pull on a t-shirt to walk in public, then you are probably apple-shaped. We instinctively try to hide our “flaws” and highlight our good points. We apple-shaped women know the towel might not go around our middles, with any room to secure it with a knot. I wouldn’t walk fast anywhere with just my swimming suit top on… we apples tend to have lots of fat in our breasts and tend to cover them.

If you are working out, burning more calories, and are starting to eat less than you burn each day, you can expect your body’s muscles to begin to metabolize your stored fat. If you want to watch for it to happen, don’t fixate on your “most disliked” fat; it may not be the first fat to be burned. Also, don’t mistakenly fixate on the fat nearest the muscles that you use in your favorite exercises. Spot-reduction doesn’t happen.

Now for the good news (and a reminder from Part 1 of this series): We all lose fat in the opposite order from how we gained it. When apple-shaped women start to eat and exercise at a level that causes fat loss, they lose the fat that is on their necks, under their chins, around clavicles. It takes longer to burn the fat on your belly. That is the fat your body tends to save for an emergency; your body will only empty those cells when the more peripheral fat cells are drained. It doesn’t matter which exercise activity you do.

Everyone’s body has a set pattern to determine the order that fat cells will be drained. Doing an exercise that fatigues the waistline (or any body part) doesn’t cause those muscles to suddenly metabolize the fat that is on top of them. Rather, the brain opens up and drains the triglycerides from the “next” fat cell in its pattern, with no regard to location. So go ahead and do the exercises that move the most of your body and burns the most calories in the shortest amount of time. These exercises include walking, running, skating, dancing, skipping rope, biking and swimming. The muscles you work will require calories that are stored in fat cells – no matter how close or far away from the exercised muscles.

If you have an apple-shaped body, then be the best apple you can be by eating right and exercising regularly!

Alice Lockridge,
Apple-shaped Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

There are about three dozen great recipes in our Good Mood Diet book. One dish that didn't make it into Chapter 8 is what could be called the Feel-Great-and-Don't-Wait Salad. Of course, it's not really a recipe since I make it up as a I go along each time. It is generally my version of an entree salad that I make for lunch or dinner when I am ready for a good meal but not looking to delay the actual eating. The only ingredients that make it into every Feel-Great-and-Don't-Wait Salad would be dark green lettuce and olive oil. Everything else is a matter of what's in the fridge, pantry and on Dr. Kleiner's Feel-Great Foods list.

I make this salad frequently when I am in the middle of a writing project. It satisfies my hunger without making me fell too full or sleepy. All the requisite chewing and crunching tends to work off some of my nervous energy. It follows the Good Mood concept of combining proteins with carbs and healthy fats.

Here's how I put the salad together. Feel free to make your own varieties and don't be alarmed if you decide to eat it, say, five or more times each week. It is especially appealing as the weather gets milder and warmer, or if you sense becoming dehydrated.

1. Start with a good size bowl for easy tossing and mixing. Add some olive oil, vinegar (try different kinds for fun), perhaps dijon mustard, and salt and pepper to taste. Whisk it all around with a fork. Make enough to dress your salad.


2. Next put in two to four fistfuls of salad greens – the darker the pigment the better. (Say no to iceberg!) Shred the greens loosely into bite-size pieces.


3. Then check out what's in the refrigerator. Usually I am hoping for turkey in the deli drawer or some cold roasted chicken. I might also shell some cold edamame (soybeans in the pod) if it is left from movie snacks from the previous night or the kids’ lunches. (My son especially leaves some food in his lunch bag because he is "too busy talking;" probably working on a future career as a radio host). I'm happy if I find a hard-boiled egg and some black olives.


4. Then I go to the pantry looking for sunflower seeds and almonds to sprinkle on. Sometimes I use pumpkin seeds and walnuts.


5. Then I rummage around for dried fruit for sweetness, usually organic raisins but apricots, cherries or cranberries all work. Sometimes I go back to the fridge for fresh strawberries, which I like to slice roughly into small bits. Same with an orange or grapefruit if they are in the fruit bowl.

At this point I am ready to eat. So I toss it all together and sometimes just eat right from the big bowl. Or I might eat half for lunch, go write some more and eat the rest for my mid-afternoon snack. You will know the right combinations of these Feel-Great Foods when you taste the salad. That's part of the fun.

Bob
Bob Condor is co-author of The Good Mood Diet and managing editor of health at MSN.com

So here we are on the threshold of the approval of Alli, the first government-approved, non-prescription diet pill. This new version of Xenical (Orlistat) is a reduced-strength version (60mg) that can be sold over-the-counter. The drug will cost between $1 to $2 per day, and GlaxoSmithKline expect that 5-6 million Americans per year will buy the drug.

This is the basic premise of how Alli works:

When taken with meals, Orlistat blocks the absorption of about one-quarter of any fat consumed. That fat — about 150 to 200 calories worth — is passed out of the body in stool, which can, as a result, be loose. About half of patients in trials experienced gastrointestinal side effects.

Why am I shaking my head? Because your brain and your heart so desperately need the healthy fats to be absorbed into your body to be healthy, to raise mood, and to achieve lifelong weight control. Instead, they’ve invented a pill to help you lose weight and once again, make you feel worse instead of better. On Alli you’ll be sending those great fats down the toilet instead of to your brain.

And the “lose weight” part is pretty debatable. In six-month clinical trials, obese people who took orlistat lost on average 5.3 pounds to 6.2 pounds more than did those who were given dummy pills. When the subjects stopped the pills they regained their weight. The new over-the-counter pill will contain half the dose of the drug used in the diet studies.

So skip the Alli experiment. Eat and enjoy all the healthy fats, and proteins and carbs, that your brain and body need to feel great. You’ll have the energy and the motivation to go out and take a walk or even go dancing. Anything has got to be better than spending your spare time in the bathroom!

In my recent blogs I’ve talked about one of my most frequently asked questions. It goes something like this: The person grabs some part of their body (usually one that is soft and undesirable) and asks, “Can you give me an exercise to get rid of this?”

This common question brings up two important topics: body shapes and where body fat is stored (covered in Parts 1 and 2 of this series) and that all-time favorite subject, “Spot Reducing.” Hint: It’s in quotes because it doesn’t really exist.

You can find claims about spot-reducing everywhere. There are suggestions all over the gym, exercise videos, and in many workout manuals. It seems like common knowledge, but instead is an ancient urban myth. You cannot tell your body where to burn fat when you make your muscles hungry. Your body has an intricate plan that’s set deep in your survival genes. The plan is to put any extra food you might be lucky enough to find, in a storage compartment (adipose tissue cell) in a safe location on your body. Just imagine hundreds of years ago, when life was much more dangerous, that if the plan had been to store our extra groceries on our calves or out on our wrists (instead of safely around our middles). There would have been many mishaps that would have caused our essential food stores to be lost due to cuts, slashes, breaks or loss of our appendages. It just wouldn’t have been as good a plan to put our food way out there on our limbs. Instead there are 3 or 4 typical patterns of how human bodies store their fat. These patterns are the ones that have worked over time and have helped us survive in times when we couldn’t find enough food.

So our bodies are set-up for survival of the human race over the ages, not beauty according to the latest fashion whim. Sure thin waists are popular now, but it was a sign of poverty in the not-so-distant history.

So, with your body possessing this pattern of fat storage it also has a plan for the order in which your fat cells will be drained. It doesn’t involve draining the fat cell closest to the muscle that is hungry. It’s developed around draining the fat cell that is most “at risk” of being drained first. So if I do lots of sit-ups, I’m going to get stronger abdominal muscles and that will help my back be less vulnerable. But I’m not going to see the fat melt off my abs just because I worked them out. Nor will the fat “turn into” muscle. The fat to fuel this new work (doing the sit-ups) will come from the last fat cell I filled up (maybe behind my neck, even though I’ve barely even noticed that fat yet) and the fuel (that’s what fat is) will travel in the blood stream to the exercised muscle to enable it keep working.

Beware! Spot-reduction claims are a sure way to know that someone’s trying to trick you! No new exercise or apparatus can make your body re-direct fat cell drainage. Just stick to the full-body exercises that burn a lot of calories and eat the foods that will help you stay in a good mood.

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

Dear Readers, As you know from reading Dr. Kleiner's books and articles, tuna products vary wildly in their health benefits and contamination levels. I asked Joe Malley, owner of Fishing Vessel St. Jude, to tell me more about how he discovered the benefits of troll-caught tuna. Here's Joe's reply:

My first experience with troll-caught, cold-packed canned albacore was before it was a widely known commodity. Among fisherman, “home pack” albacore had a fabulous reputation for its gourmet flavor. People talked it up so much that we decided to have some fish canned in Astoria Oregon in 1987. The cans came back to the boat delivered in a shopping cart. We loved the tuna and the responses we got from those we shared it with were so positive that we knew there was a future in it. Even then we didn’t know these cans were also outstanding in terms of their health benefits.

Sometime in 1999, I happened to hear early rumblings about mercury in tuna. The report I read worried me so I brashly approached the scientists who had done the study. At first, I just asked if the study had distinguished the mercury content of smaller (troll caught) albacore from the larger fish that predominate in the big cannery products. The person I spoke to was then the Director of Public Health for Maine. He said they had no way of knowing what tuna were in the tested cans, which were selected at random from grocery store shelves. I then asked if he felt it was likely that the younger fish might have different (lower) contamination levels. He said he would expect that.

This was enough for me to begin testing our tuna. Fortunately, the test results were clear and I never had to face the connundrum my wife posed, "Hey genius, what are you gonna do if the results are bad?"

Joe Malley,
co-owner of Fishing Vessel St. Jude

I’ve just starting using the neatest new tool. I’m the kind of person that goes to the grocery store about every third day. I get a few things and then face that difficult decision... paper or plastic? Well, I’ve read all about it. Paper is from trees and we can grow more trees and plastic bags can be reused to make fluffy cloth but either way it’s such a waste of resources to use so many of either kind.

My family is great at recycling! We reuse bags of either kind and of every size but when you look at the huge collection we get in a month and multiply that by the number of shoppers in just the United States, its way too many bags!

We’ve make a decent effort to go back to the store with previously attained bags and we’ve tried using those cloth bags that some stores sell for that purpose. But either the cloth bag was misshapen (it would work great for my library books but not for random shapes of grocery items) or too small or not strong enough.

Last week I found a bag that is revolutionizing my shopping experience. It works so well and looks so good my husband even uses one now.

This bag unfolds to virtually line the shopping cart (keeps the foods that you’re taking into your kitchen off of the dirty cart surfaces) and holds onto the grid wall of the cart to stay open while you shop. When it’s checkout time they can just put your purchased items back in the cart and you can take them to your car.

There’s no need for those odd-shaped cartons the Big Box Stores give you (to recycle for them) to carry your purchases. There’s no need to take multiple trips from the car to the house because my new bag comfortably holds several plastic bags worth of items. The claim is it will hold 40 pounds but most of us won’t be carrying that large a load anyway. Best of all, we’re not going to be contributing to the landfills or the recycle bins that fill up with bags from our shopping trips.

Paper or plastic? I say, "Neither, I have a Shopping Cart Tote."

Keep an eye on my web site – if I can get in touch with the distributor, I’m going to stock them on my web page too! It’s the right thing to do. And don’t you think the Good Mood Foods will work even better if we know we are helping save Mother Earth? So if I do make this next step, I’ll just add to my mantra to have this third part: Eat Right, Exercise Regularly and Respect Earth’s Resources! [Editor's note: Cool acronym - ERERRER]

Alice Lockridge,
Physical Activity expert, MS PhysEd, Exercise Physiologist

Dear readers, Today we're publishing an e-mail message from Michael Catalano in Houston.

For the first 30 years of my life, I had horrible eating habits that date back to an Italian Mother and Grandmother who were offended if you didn’t eat everything that they put on your plate. Although very tasty, these foods like lasagna and baked ziti, in large quantities, were not the road to a healthy relationship with food. The only reason why I stayed in shape was that I exercised for two hours a day and had the benefit of a sub-30-year-old's metabolism.

For the last 14 years I have tried every single “fad” out there to compensate for never having established a healthy eating program and have been woefully disappointed by the results.

The Good Mood Diet book has changed my life, the combination of principles that make sense along with an easy-to-follow plan, even at restaurants, has resulted in more energy and less hunger than ever. I feel 15 years younger. I am so excited!

I have lost 11 pounds in 2 weeks and I am so convinced that I will be following your program for the rest of my life. Thank you so much, Susan, you are a life changer and I’ll never forget you.

Michael Catalano,
Houston

Valentine’s Day came a day early for me with the publishing of research about recognizing how active you really are. Here’s the synopsis:

People who think they're getting a good workout obtain more benefits than those who perform the exact same activities, but don't think what they are doing is exercise, according to the findings of a study by Harvard researchers.

These results support the idea that the benefits of exercise may involve a placebo effect.

Hotel cleaners who were told that their work of cleaning roughly 15 rooms each day was enough physical activity to maintain a healthy lifestyle were more trim and fit four weeks later than their peers who weren't given this message, Dr. Ellen Langer and her student Alia J. Crum report in the February issue of Psychological Science.

To investigate, the researchers recruited at 84 female housekeepers working at seven different hotels. Workers in four of the hotels were told that the exercise they got on the job met or exceeded the Surgeon General's activity recommendations for a healthy lifestyle, while those in the three other hotels were not told anything. Several measures of participants' fitness and health were taken at the beginning of the study and four weeks later.

Before the study started, about two-thirds of all participants said they didn't exercise regularly, while one-third said they didn't exercise at all. After four weeks, 79.7 percent of the women in the informed group said they exercised regularly. They also lost two pounds, on average; lowered their blood pressure by 10 percent; and showed reductions in percentage of body fat, body mass index, and the size of their waists in relation to their hips.

"These results support the hypothesis that exercise affects health in part or in whole via the placebo effect," Crum and Langer write. "Whether the change in physiological health was brought about directly or indirectly, it is clear that health is significantly affected by mind-set."

So all activity counts: cleaning your house, sweeping the driveway or walkway, washing the dishes. In fact, anything other than sitting in a chair is probably activity. While you’re in the house or outside, add some music by turning on the radio or wearing a music player. You’ll pick up your pace and have more fun at the same time. And give yourself a pat on the back for living an active life!

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Lots of stories about fish in the news this week. The first one discussed that while we know that fish oils are incredibly important for brain health, the current scientific evidence is not clear on whether or not fish oils alone can decrease depression.

On The Good Mood Diet, you know that we don’t rely on any single food to change who you are or how you feel. Fish is included in the diet for brain health and to promote fat loss. If you use a fish oil supplement instead of eating fish, you might not get quite as much bang for your buck, but those fish oils are still very important for brain health.

Here’s a quote from the article:

Omega-3 fatty acids, especially abundant in oily fish, and also found in nuts, seeds, and leafy green vegetables, "are involved in chemical messaging in the brain, and help regulate blood vessel activity and aspects of the immune system that affect the central nervous system," according to the report in Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, a publication of the British Medical Journal Group.

The second article this week was a British-American study about children whose mothers ate at least 3 servings (12 oz.) of fish weekly during pregnancy and had higher scores of mental function during their early years. The new study found that maternal seafood intake during pregnancy of less than 12 oz. a week was associated with increased risk of children being in the bottom 25 percent of verbal IQ at 8 years of age and with sub-optimum performance on tests of social behavior, fine motor activity, communication and social development.

"For the baby's development, at the level of 12 ounces a week during pregnancy, the beneficial effects of the nutrients in fish far outweigh the risk," said Dr. Joseph Hibbeln. He is a clinical investigator at the U.S. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and lead author of a report on the study in the Feb. 17 issue of the journal The Lancet.

Clearly, no matter who you are, fish is great brain food!

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

As I was sitting in my office in Pennsylvania, watching the snow fall around me last week, I knew that school would get out early and the next day would be a snow day. According to the weather report, the storm front was running from Indiana all the way to the East Coast. Plenty of people would be at home with their kids.

This always causes a unique dilemma over how will you spend the day. One of the hardest times when making changes in eating habits is when the routine you follow is altered. Snow days definitely alter your day. The kids are home and need to be entertained. So the question is what to do with them. Do you, a) have a cookie baking day with the kids with hot chocolate and sweets or b) find a less food-oriented activity to while away the hours.

The solution is a combo of the two. It’s a great day to spend time in the kitchen as long as you don’t go overboard. Try the Chocolage Pecan Clouds (page 189) or Brownie recipe (page 192) in The Good Mood Diet book. Follow it with a snowball fight while the cookies cool and finish off with hot chocolate. If you need more activities, consider having a dance-off as a great source of aerobic activity.

Stay warm and drive carefully!

Karen
Nutritionist and contributor of the recipes for The Good Mood Diet

I’m often asked whether eating before and after exercise defeats the calorie burn that you get from exercise. The fact is, it’s the exact opposite! Fueling yourself before exercise gives you the energy that you need to work out harder and even longer, helping you burn more calories. It also helps reduce the soreness that you might get after exercise, so you can work out again the next day. And you’ll get a great muscle response by feeding yourself before exercise.

Eating immediately after exercise is critical to maximizing your exercise effort. Once you raise your metabolic rate from exercising, adding food raises it another 10 to 15 percent. Called the “thermic effect of food,” the energy that it takes to chew, digest and absorb foods causes an additional calorie burn that is additive to the hours of elevated metabolic rate you naturally get after exercise. When you feed yourself right after exercise you really put your food to work for you. The calories and the nutrients go right to your muscles to repair, build and refuel your muscles. This is when you gain strength and toning. It’s what allows for greater fat burning, not fat gain. And you’ll have the energy to work out harder and longer day after day. You’ll also avoid that huge energy slump that comes several hours after exercise when you don’t feed yourself well. And of course, make sure to hydrate yourself well before, during and after exercise.

If you exercise mid-morning, then you can follow The Good Mood Diet menu plans and templates in the book exactly. If you exercise at other times, then just move things around to fit your schedule. The mid-morning smoothie is really ideal as your post-exercise snack. If you can’t do the smoothie because you’re out and about, then grab a non-fat latte or a yogurt and a piece of fruit. You’ll need to add in a little more protein at some other point in the day.

Put your food to work for you. You will notice the difference.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Last week Starbuck's Chairman Howard Schultz wrote a memo to his employees. He lamented that the new innovations that have made stores efficient have removed the true Starbuck’s experience; that corporate decisions have resulted in “stores that no longer have the soul of the past.”

There is no question that along with a cup of coffee (or coffee-flavored milk, depending on your order), Starbuck’s found what customers were really willing to pay for: the experience. You could go anywhere for a cup of coffee. But at Starbuck’s you could find a cozy spot to sit, a friend behind the register and a barista who knew your order ahead of time. You found conversation and friendship and a home away from home. What Schultz has recognized is that today the Starbuck’s experience is pretty industrialized. You stand in line, you give your order, you stand in line again, and you probably go somewhere else with your latte since it’s too congested and harried in the store to hear yourself think.

So it’s not just about the food. The experience, and how it makes you feel, is key to sustained success. There’s so much more to The Good Mood Diet than the menus. While following the food plan will definitely make you feel better, one of the keys to sustained success is the full experience.

That’s why I’ve created the opportunity for you to be part of a Good Mood Diet Club. Create one in your life. Get your friends involved. Join the online conversation. Film your story, and your Club’s story, and put it up on our www.youtube.com group site. That would really be an experience that we could all share.

Whenever you eat, try to be “in the moment.” Don’t be pre-occupied and miss the fact that you’re eating. Enjoy your food; savor it. Eating is a mind and body experience. Let it happen.

Have a Good Mood party and try some of the juice drink recipes. Or have the Club over and experiment with some new ones. Put on Bobby McFerrin’s Don’t Worry, Be Happy song while your having fun in the kitchen!

Or not. Just let yourself go and feel the experience!

Yours in a good mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Ever since I lived in North Carolina I have been a fan of greens. While I was on faculty at Duke University Medical Center we created new heart-healthy recipes to replace the traditional recipes that used salt pork as the main seasoning for Southern-style greens. Travels to Greece and Turkey shed light on a completely different cooking style, and greens were one of my favorite dishes to taste as we traveled through the different Mediterranean regions. Moving to Seattle introduced an Asian approach to cooking greens, and I never tire of experimenting with all of these international flavors to see what new recipe I can cook up.

Tonight we arrived home later than usual but still needed to eat a healthy and satisfying dinner. I had purchased a mixture of braising greens at the grocery store on Sunday, so they really needed to be cooked tonight for the freshest flavor. I hadn't really thought out any recipe when I bought the greens, and now I felt like “iron-chef mom” to get dinner on the table quickly. My thrown-together recipe came out so good that I just have to share it with you. Even my kids (ages 10 and 14) tried it!

2 Tbsp olive oil
½ small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
a couple of pinches of salt
several good grinds of fresh black pepper
¼ cup chopped walnuts
4 Kalamata olives, thinly sliced
3 cups of mixed baby red and green kale, baby red and green Swiss chard, rinsed and not dried

Heat oil on medium heat in nonstick skillet. Lightly sauté the onion and garlic with salt and pepper for a couple of minutes. Add walnuts and olives and sauté until mixtures begin to blend and nuts begin to toast. Add greens and mix. Cook uncovered for just a minute or two, and then cover and braise until the greens are soft, but not mushy. Serve immediately.

This recipe made two adult size servings and a little bit extra for the kids to taste.

Remember, I just tried this out. The amounts are not exact; you might need to adjust amounts to work for you at home. If you come up with new or improved versions of this or any other recipe, please let us know. I'd love to hear from you.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

This has been a pretty rough season for colds and flu, and everything else you can catch. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been sick, including myself. For the past few weeks I’ve been getting lots of questions about what and how to eat while you’re sick. While there isn’t a lot of detailed science in this area, there are some good strategies to follow.

When you’re really sick with a fever, your appetite is usually almost non-existent. This is when fluids are most critical. If your fever is above 100 degrees, I suggest switching from water to a sports drink. Water just may not have the oomph to get into your tissues and cells like a sports drink does, especially if you’re not eating any food. Don’t wait too long to do this. Once you’re dehydrated and running a higher fever, you won’t be able to catch up on your own. Most importantly, if you are an adult with a fever over 102 degrees, see your physician immediately. The likelihood of dehydration is very high and you might need medical intervention.

If you have a cold or other virus that has you feeling lousy but you still have an appetite, fluids are still your number-one concern. As long as you are eating, water should be a great hydrator. Drink constantly. Next, eating regularly will help you feel better and avoid heavy weakness and the headaches that sometimes come from these illnesses. Hopefully, a little more fuel will also help you heal more quickly.

Light foods are best. Chicken soup is always wonderful, as are toast or crackers with a little light cheese, cereal with nonfat milk, melon with a little nonfat yogurt, or whatever sounds like it will taste good to you. I’m going to re-emphasize soups, because they are such good fluid sources as well. Fatty foods will not make you feel good while you’re sick. They hang around in your stomach too long and may lead to upset stomach symptoms and heartburn.

If you feel your sweet tooth starting to act up, you’re probably starting to feel better. Begin to feed your brain again with the standard Good Mood Diet strategies: eating a good breakfast, combining protein and carbohydrates each time you eat, and eating every 2½ to 3 hours (even if you’re eating less than the standard menu). Try to add the egg back to your diet and see if an apple with peanut butter does the trick. That’s what worked for me this time.

Once you are in the clear, get right back to exercise, but do it slowly. If you’ve been down for the count, you’ll have to work to get back to your pre-illness fitness level. Take it easy. There’s no point in injuring yourself and having to sit out a week because you thought you were stronger than you are. Returning to exercise slowly will help boost your mood and your immune system, while you get your body back into fat burning mode.

Stay well, and stay happy!

Yours in Good Health,
Dr. Susan Kleiner