Good Mood Diet Blog

Stretching is the part of a good exercise program that is often misused or completely forgotten. Stretching to improve the range-of-motion of your joints is a good use of your time. But it’s no way to start working out. Never stretch at the start of your workout or when your muscles are cold. Warm up first with some slow walking and some big, gentle movements with the arm, neck and back.

After you have played a game, lifted weights, or finished your walk – that’s another important time to do your stretches. Warm muscles should be held in a position of only slight sensation of stretch and never pushed, pulled or jerked. Increased flexibility is the reward for stretching correctly.

For a list of essential stretches, see my article, Daily Stretches from Alice.

Eat Right and Exercise Regularly!
Alice Lockridge, MS PhysEd

We are a nation at war with obesity, so at first glance it seems almost ludicrous to be overly concerned with the image of thinness in our society. As I discussed in my previous blog, titled Calorie reduction diets linked to chronic weight issues, once you look past the surface though, it becomes apparent that an obsession with thinness might actually contribute to a problem with obesity.

Overweight and obesity result from the interaction of a variety of factors, of which socio-cultural and environmental influences play a very strong role. We live in a culture that glorifies thinness. Images in the mass media significantly influence how girls and women view their bodies. Dr. Gayle Bessenoff, a researcher at the University of Connecticut, studied 112 college women (average age: 18) in an introductory psychology course at an unnamed U.S. college. She gave the students packets of ads from women’s fashion magazines such as Glamour and Vogue. Half the students looked at clothing ads showing thin female models. The rest received ads for products other than clothes that showed no female models. Afterward the students answered a series of surveys to rate depression, agitation, self-esteem and urge to lose weight. The answers, published by Psychology of Women Quarterly in September 2006, are quite disturbing.

The women who had viewed the fashion ads with the skinny models scored worse on all the surveys, especially if they had started out with a more negative body image. According to Dr. Bessenoff, “Women who already have low opinions of their physical appearance are at an even greater risk for negative effects from media images.” Her theory is that those women may compare themselves to the models, giving more weight to the bad feelings they already have about their own bodies.

In another study by Alison E. Field and colleagues from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the researchers surveyed 548 5th- through 12th-grade girls in the Northeastern United States. They found that the girls’ discontent with their body shape and size was related to the frequency of reading fashion magazines. The amount of dieting to lose weight was also highly associated with the frequency of reading fashion magazines. According to the conclusions of these researchers, “…it is not prudent to suggest that overweight girls should accept their body shape and not be encouraged to lose weight. However, aspiring to look like underweight models may have deleterious psychological consequences. The results suggest that the print media aimed at young girls could serve a public health role by refraining from relying on models who are severely underweight and printing more articles on the benefits of physical activity…”

There are more images of beauty than skeletal thinness. For the past several years, the picture of beauty was a fit and more muscular image. Models like Cindy Crawford and Elle Macpherson built their images based on their exercise routines and fit bodies. If you need to emulate a media image, this is a good one. Work toward creating a picture of health and beauty for yourself. You will enjoy it for a lifetime.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Oh, I love this news! We’ve been talking a lot about the healthy brain and heart benefits of epicatechins, one of a group of chemicals called flavonols found in foods like blueberries, tea, cocoa and grapes. Well, researchers just published an article in the May 30th issue The Journal of Neuroscience in which they announced their finding that if you combine these foods with exercise, the memories of mice are very enhanced. [Editor's caution: Not suprisingly, the Journal article is quite technical.]

The researchers fed some mice a regular diet and other mice a regular diet supplemented with the epicatechin compound. Half the mice in each group then ran on a wheel for two hours each day. After 30 days the mice were put through a rigorous memory test.

Those mice that were supplemented and ran on the wheel significantly outperformed all the other groups of mice. These mice also had greater blood vessel development in the area of the brain associated with memory. The supplemented group that did not exercise showed some improvement, but not as much as those that exercised.

So think of The Good Mood Diet not as just a food plan, but a mind-body lifestyle plan. While the food is very important, combining and active lifestyle with the food plan is far more powerful.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Nothing makes headlines like controversy. Somewhere between the fields of nutrition and dermatology a media darling is brewing, and it will be hitting the airwaves faster than you can spell “sunscreen.” What is it that could raise the ire of a whole medical specialty and cause the resignation of a faculty member from the department of dermatology at a prestigious school of medicine? The notion that a tiny bit of unprotected sunshine may actually improve your health.

The Sunshine Vitamin

Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin because most of the vitamin D that your body requires can come from exposure to sunlight. Ultraviolet energy from the sun is absorbed by the skin and converted into vitamin D. Vitamin D is also available from a handful of foods that we eat. It is found naturally in oily fish like salmon and mackerel and fish oils, and in vitamin D-fortified milk and cereals.

Because vitamin D is limited to only this small number of foods, we greatly depend on sunlight to cover our needs. Although previous generations received enough exposure to the sun to manufacture adequate supplies of vitamin D, new research has uncovered that a lot of people today, particularly those who live in northerly climates, are not getting enough sunlight to meet their needs for vitamin D. Some experts are referring to it as an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.

A Dynamic Duo

Vitamin D is a nutrient, but it is also classified as a hormone. The maintenance of calcium balance and bone health is controlled by an elegant cascade of biochemical events that links vitamin D and calcium like two dancers performing a pas de deux. Each time calcium levels fall, vitamin D is there to help it regain the balance. Vitamin D promotes the absorption of calcium from the intestines and the resorption of calcium in bones. It acts on the kidneys and intestines to maintain adequate levels of calcium and phosphorus for bone formation, and it is integrally involved in the maintenance of calcium levels in blood.

Without enough vitamin D children develop the deficiency disease, rickets. Adults deficient in vitamin D suffer from soft bones that can precipitate osteoporosis.

Because vitamin D is intertwined with calcium balance, it plays a crucial role in muscle, cardiac, and neurological functions. It may also be linked to effects on cell growth, immune function and decreasing risks of developing cancers of the prostate, breast and colon. The recent discovery of calcium’s role in genetic control of fat metabolism places vitamin D in a pivotal position to assist calcium with energy balance and body weight maintenance. And when it comes to mood, vitamin D is required for the manufacture of serotonin, the feel-good neurotransmitter in your brain.

The Sunshine Curse

It is well known that sun exposure can lead to sun damage. The ultraviolet A and B rays of the sun penetrate below the protective layers of the skin to cause degeneration of the supporting collagen, genetic damage to the cells, and weakened function of immune cells within the skin. It is estimated that the majority of skin aging and facial damage attributed to aging is actually the result of chronic photo aging caused by exposure to the ultraviolet (UV) rays of the sun. Years of sun damage can lead to skin cancer. Protection from sun exposure may be the single most important health issue related to skin care. These risks hold true for both direct exposure to sunlight as well as routine use of tanning beds.

The process of tanning is actually a form of damage control. Having a tan actually demonstrates that the skin has had to protect itself from an onslaught of UV rays and the tan is the first victim to that onslaught. Melanin is a natural sunscreen that evolved to protect humans from radiation in the equatorial regions of the world. Darker-skinned individuals with greater proportions of melanin in their epidermis are more protected from the damaging rays of the sun compared to light-skinned individuals, but they are less efficient at producing vitamin D.

Is Any Sun Safe?

Here lies the controversy. According to Dr. Michael Holick, a leading vitamin D researcher, director of the Bone Health Care Clinic at Boston University Medical Center and former faculty member of the department of dermatology there, many children and adults aren’t getting enough vitamin D, and it could lead to serious health consequences. Dr. Holick’s research has linked low levels of vitamin D with more than just the vitamin D deficiency disease, rickets, although the incidence of this previously considered eradicated disease in children is on the rise. According to Dr. Holick, if during childhood you are vitamin D deficient, you are also at an increased risk of developing Type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Later in life you could be more likely to develop colon, prostate, breast and ovarian cancer. Adults deficient in vitamin D can develop osteomalacia (adult rickets), osteoporosis, and muscle weakness, increasing the risk of falls.

Although healthy levels of vitamin D can be consumed with food and supplements (see sidebar for recommended levels), Dr. Holick recommends a small amount of unprotected sun exposure so that the body manufactures its own vitamin D. He advises that light-skinned people need five to 10 minutes of sun exposure on the arms and face two to three times a week. He advises not using sunscreen until after that time. A sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 8 diminishes the skin’s ability to make vitamin D by about 95 percent. Those with darker skin may need as much as a half-hour or longer in the sun without sunscreen to produce sufficient vitamin D. More sun exposure will not help you make any more vitamin D, and will likely cause harm. Dr. Holick encourages everyone to limit exposure to 10 minutes and use sunscreen immediately afterward.

Dermatologists are incensed with Dr. Holick’s advice. “There is no such thing as a safe tan,” says Dr. Darrell Rigel, a clinical professor of dermatology at New York University in Manhattan. Dr. Barbara Gilchrest, chairwoman of the dermatology department where Holick resigned his faculty appointment calls his research “absurd” and “schlock” science. Others point to his research funding from the tanning bed industry as a possible motivation for irresponsible advice.

The overriding concern of experts in the field of dermatology is that once permission is given for any amount of unprotected sun exposure, it leaves too much room for the possibility of overexposure. Right now the message is clear: don’t ever go out into the sun without protection. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it works. And since we can get vitamin D from food, dermatologists see that as a much safer avenue than depending on the sun.

Shedding Light

Vitamin D production is not the only health benefit of sunlight. Ultraviolet light is an effective treatment for the skin condition psoriasis. Many people find that the condition improves in the summer when they’re exposed to natural sunlight.

Sunlight and light therapy is the best known treatment for seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The depression and fatigue experienced during the dark fall and winter months is alleviated in the spring and summer as the days grow longer with sunlight.

Levels of the brain neurotransmitter serotonin are elevated with sunlight exposure. Low levels of serotonin are linked with decreased mood and depression. This link may also influence the need for pain medication in post-surgery patients. A recent study found that surgery patients in rooms with lots of natural light took less pain medication, and their drug costs ran 21% less than for equally ill patients recovering in darker rooms on the other side of the hospital building.

Keys to Safe, and Sane Sunning

If you choose to follow Dr. Holick’s advice, then make sure to limit your sun exposure to no longer than 5-10 minutes, two to three times a week, or slightly more if you are dark-skinned. There is no further benefit from longer unprotected exposure.

Otherwise, follow this important advice to avoid skin damage:

• Avoid the sun during the peak hours of UV exposure: between 10 AM and 3 PM.
• Beware of cloudy skies; harmful rays still pass through the clouds.
• Use a sunscreen with at least an SPF of 15 or higher. It should have broad spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB. Water resistant products stay on the skin longer. Reapply according to directions.
• Wear protective clothing like wide-brimmed hats that shade the neck, ears, eyes and head. Use sunglasses with 99-100% UV protection. Lightweight clothing that covers your arms, shoulders, back, chest and legs will give sun protection, as well as the new high-tech clothing with SPF protection built in.
• Tanning beds are just as harmful as the sun itself. Tanning pills or spray-on tans do not give any sun protection. Be an informed consumer.

Daily Vitamin D Recommendations

For children 2 months - 18 years, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends 200 IU of vitamin D daily.

For adults, the Institute of Medicine recommends daily Vitamin D intake as follows:

• 18 – 50 years: 200 IU


• 51 – 70 years: 400 IU


• 71 years and older: 600 IU

Good Food Sources of Vitamin D

Food:	Amount of Vitamin D (IU)
Cod liver oil (1 Tbsp)	1,360
Mackerel (3.5 oz)	458
Salmon-Atlantic (3.5 oz.)	278
Sardines in oil, canned, drained (3.5 oz)	270
Light tuna canned in oil, drained (3.5 oz)	236
Light tuna canned in water, drained (3.5 oz)	160
Milk fortified with vitamin D (1 cup)	99
Balance Bar	80
Cod-Atlantic (3.5 oz)	56
Large whole egg	26
General Mills Total Corn Flakes Cereal (1 cup)	26

Citations

Holick MF. Vitamin D: importance in the prevention of cancers, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;79:362-71.

Han A and Maibach HI. Management of acute sunburn. Am J Clin Dermatol 2004;5:39-47.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

When I was a kid we had a policy of no food in the car. The reason was that my Dad hated a dirty car. Once I became a trained nutritionist, it became very clear that it was also a very healthy rule. It completely avoided the trap of what I call non-attentive eating, or mindless eating. That is, eating out of boredom when you are just practicing that food-to-mouth hand movement and you aren’t really aware that you’re eating.

This rule worked well in those days before we spent so much of our time in a car, and even now I try very hard to limit the amount of food we eat while driving in the car. On a day-to-day basis, food eaten by my children in the car is to replace a meal or snack, not to keep them occupied and quiet. So if it isn’t one of those times, we don’t need food in the car.

Long road trips are a whole different story. I actually think that snacking during road trips is part of the vacation from the rules of life. Part of our packing routine is pulling out the cooler and planning the fun snacks for the car. Summer is the perfect fruit season, so there’s always an abundance of our favorite fruits. I make sure to have napkins and a garbage bag for the drips and the pits. A selection of roasted nuts is a must, and a favorite cheese or two, pre-sliced and wrapped at home is a mainstay. We are such cheese lovers that we don’t bother with the crackers. An array of flat and sparkling waters is always on hand.

Then there are the individual favorites: my husband doesn’t go anywhere without great chocolate. One child loves a commercially available natural mango smoothie and pita chips available at the supermarket. The other child is a pretzel eater.

And as you can imagine, I was trained not to eat in the car. So it’s a habit that I break by drinking my favorite iced latte, knowing that I’m not really “eating” in the car.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

A few blogs ago I talked about the health issues associated with grilling meats. A few days later we got some good news: marinating meats with certain herbs and spices may reduce the amount of carcinogenic compounds, called HCAs, produced as a by-product of grilling.

According to Professor of Food Chemistry J. Scott Smith of Kansas State University, certain herbs and spices contain natural antioxidants that may decrease the production of HCAs. His research shows that by marinating meats and fish with herbs from the mint family such as basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, and thyme, HCAs actually are significantly reduced after grilling.

While the marinade with these herbs showed the greatest effect, two other marinades with different herbs seasonings were tested and found to be almost as effective. The rosemary/thyme marinade also contained pepper, allspice and salt. Another marinade included oregano, thyme, garlic and onion. A third marinade had oregano, garlic, basil, onion and parsley.

Next month our Chef Karen will create some delicious marinades to help you grill safely through the summer and throughout the year. Make sure to tune in for our July recipes.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

I’m the luckiest employee; I have the most fun job, I have the largest “office” in the entire company, and I don’t have to stay at my desk when there’s real work to do helping others learn to Eat Right and Exercise Regularly.

Yesterday two women dropped by the employee wellness workout center where I work. I’ve worked there for 18 years, and knew I’d never seen them before. They were just passing through, one showing the gym to the other. When I introduced myself and asked if I could help show them around, I got blank stares. They both said they’d worked out for years and implied that they knew everything that they needed to know, now that they knew the path to get to the facility. But I’m not that easily put off from my chosen career.

My first lure was to ask them if they’d ever used an exercise ball. But they attempted to deflect me from walking around my desk by explaining that they weren’t dressed to work out; they had spike heels on. I assured them that it wouldn’t matter. We walked toward the ball rack and I picked out ones that would match their heights. I encouraged them to slip off their shoes and sit on the balls. This is when I knew I had them. Their opinion of working out was limited to spend time on the treadmill virtually working out alone in silence just looking around the gym.

As we began to lean back into spinal hyperflexion, they began to squeal and realize they never looked back or moved their backs in this way. Their several “oohs” and “aahhs” and one “Oh that makes my back feel good!” went as if I’d planned them. These hard-working women who sit at computers all day knew they needed to get some exercise but they had only focused on weight loss and walking.

The exercise ball sensations were quickly refocusing their attentions on aches and pains they had ignored or accepted and written off to “getting older.” They were delighted to find that there were fun ways to feel better. They asked outrageous questions like “Could we use a ball at our desk and do this during the day?” They thought I was joking when I said that yes they could, and that others all over the organization were already equipped with balls at their workstations.

We bounced on the balls for aerobic exercise and leg strengthening; we rolled forward and back to stretch our spines in four directions and we used the balls for resistance to build strength in our abdominals and arms. We used the wobble boards and talked about balance being a skill that will come back if you challenge it. We used the chin-up assist machine and found that, will some help, chin-ups are possible for everyone.

What started as a little gym walk-through turned in to a 30-minute orientation to employee workouts by a trained professional. They learned that exercise does not need to be boring, painful and without much noticeable results. I let them go back to work, with smiles on their faces and new interest in learning to use the equipment in our workout center. I’m sure they’ll return because now they know fun and effective activities they can do, even in their work clothes.

A little variety in your workout can help you get the results you are looking for. There’s a lot going on in the world of workout – lots of new exercise toys that will rejuvenate your workout and motivate you to stick to it and make exercise a regular part of your day. Consider a personal training session or search the Internet for training tips. [Editor's note: Start with Alice's Web site for tips and tools.].

Eat Right and Exercise Regularly!
Alice Lockridge, MS PhysEd

Kudos to our Good Mood Diet Club chat room members. I’m not sure whether you know that I regularly read your posts, and answer those that are addressed to me. You are an inspiration. I love how you are supporting each other, and giving your best tips and suggestions in a very non-judgmental way.

It is so exciting to hear about your weight-loss successes, from the very large losses to those who are just beginning to lose. Even more thrilling is hearing how The Good Mood Diet makes you feel. How wonderful to feel like you’re finally seeing daylight at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Diet is an extraordinarily powerful influence on the chemistry of the mind and the body.

So keep writing in with your thoughtful tips and suggestions. Don’t hesitate to write to me with a question or a comment. And please continue to post your recipes.

Everyone else out there, please sign on to the online chat room. Even if you’ve created your own Good Mood Diet Club, check in online with us and let us know how you’re doing. There’s plenty of support to go around!

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

I just returned from The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) Fourth Annual Conference and Exhibition. While I was traveling I finished a great summer-read, and just had to share it with you. Eat Cake, by Jeanne Ray (New American Library, 2004), is a book that will put you in a good mood, for sure. I love her philosophy about eating cake, finding a virtual place to go to make yourself feel better, and pursuing dreams. It’s funny, sensitive, and a lesson in listening to your inner self.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

The novelist Walter Mosley recently spoke to a packed audience of more than 150 people at the Elliott Bay Book Company, a superb independent bookstore in Seattle’s downtown Pioneer Square neighborhood. Among other excellent points, Mosley said that the successful novelist writes at the same time every day.

"I mean 365 days a year or maybe 360," says Mosley. "Writing at the same time every day is about getting your subconscious into the most productive place."

Sitting there pondering just what hours in the day I could make sacred for my own novel writing, I thought about Indiana University psychologist Jerome Busemeyer. He is featured in Chapter 7 of "The Good Mood Diet," talking about why our most hopeful pledges, say, to get up tomorrow morning and exercise first thing often, seem to result in an alarm-turnoff and sleeping later.

"Most of us are dynamically inconsistent,” says Busemeyer, who spoke from his Decision Research Laboratory at IU’s Bloomington campus. "The person who made the decision at night is not the same person who is making the decision in the morning."

Doesn’t seem much changes overnight. Not so, says Busemeyer. He explains that vowing to exercise the next morning is easy to do at bedtime, when there is no direct consequence and no temptation to sleep in and not quite face the day yet. But, come the a.m., there is a "final decision" fraught with emotional fallout.

The Good Mood Diet plan can help you bust through the emotional tangle. Dr. Kleiner has hundreds of clients who are amazed at how much easier they wake up each day, no alarm clock needed. The foods in our program not only put you in a Good Mood, but in a good frame of mind for the day ahead. You won’t feel groggy or shaky, just ready to go.

If you’re like me, you will sleep better with a hot cocoa as the last thing before bed. And you might well awaken looking forward to your daily egg or latte or both as they fit into the Good Mood plan. I’m also a big fan of fitting high-fiber cereals into the morning. Sometimes I simply need a bowl of cold cereal and nonfat milk, with some berries or banana on top. It gets my whole day going in the right direction.

Or should I say "write" direction because I am now working to encourage my Good Mood subsconscious three to four mornings per week. I am holding out on the other three mornings to make it to my local spinning class at the athletic club. I feel my novel chapters will get a boost from my feeling more fit. I know my mood certainly does.

Bob Condor

I am often asked, “If I am going to make just one change to make myself feel better, what should I do?”

I have a number of answers to this question, based on who is asking me.

If you are an active person, I would tell you that the most important thing you can change is to make sure to eat or drink immediately after exercise. Preferably you’ll have a post-exercise smoothie with milk, whey protein, and if you need a little extra, fruit and maybe even some honey. This is called a recovery drink, and it will help you recover and refuel from exercise. It will keep your metabolic rate high after exercise, and keep you from crashing later on in the day because your muscles are starving. Tomorrow you'll feel like doing it all again because you'll have the fuel stored up.

If you are not an active person, the most important thing you can do is to get moving.

Talking to someone else I might say that adding a whole egg to your diet every day, that includes the yolk, will make all the difference. Ideally you’ll eat your egg at breakfast, feeding your mind and your body. You’ll feel the difference right away, and for the whole rest of the day.

The other 2 top contenders are fish and dairy. If you don’t eat one or the other, or both, you need to add them to your diet. You will notice the difference within a day.

So now you’ve got 5 choices. If you’ve been waiting to make a change, you can choose just one to get started. Any one of these will change your life for the better.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

It’s time to give credit where credit is due. When I took health in high school we really didn’t learn anything except how to send a better spitball. Today’s high school health class, called “Image” at my daughter’s high school, is a really great class, with a wonderful teacher. They are truly learning about health, and all the things in life that contribute to health and well-being.

At the end of the semester-long class the students have to choose a topic of interest, interview an expert in the field, write a paper and do a presentation for the class. During the past week I have done 5 interviews with students in the class about nutrition. Their questions have been thoughtful and well-informed. One girl even read The Good Mood Diet and has been following it prior to our interview via email.

I am duly impressed with these students, their interest in their own personal health, and questioning of commonly held nutrition myths and misconceptions. My kudos go out to their teacher, and all the teachers nationwide who are working to educate these students about how to live healthier and happier lives.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Aren’t you tired of the same old motivational speakers at your office retreats and at the professional association’s annual meetings? Consider adding “activity intermissions” to the agenda.

Three-minute movement breaks between speakers is the best way to make sure your audience takes home more of the material the speakers to cover. Late morning and after-lunch sessions are often real sleepers – not because the subject isn’t interesting but because the metabolic rate of your participants is at the daytime lowest level.

Don’t think of it as a frill or a waste of good learning time. Adults can’t learn much when they’ve been sitting still for over 75 minutes. It’s time to get the blood moving and the brain back into a higher gear. If you’d like some title suggestions, drop by my Web site and click on some of the titles that I’ve found to really stimulate audiences.

Eat Right and Exercise Regularly!
Alice

When you read the statistics about weight and health among Americans, you probably don’t include college students in either the “adult” or “child” categories. Most people think of college students as young and healthy. New research is showing us that college students are not in much better shape when it comes to body weight and health than the rest of America.

A study conducted at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) surveyed 800, 18-24 year old undergraduate college students enrolled in a general nutrition course. The results showed that at least one-third of UNH students are overweight or obese, 8 percent of men had metabolic syndrome, 60 percent of men had high blood pressure, and more than two-thirds of women are not meeting their nutritional needs for iron, calcium or folate.

Students completed questionnaires on their lifestyle behaviors and dietary habits, chronicling their smoking, exercise, alcohol consumption, and consumption of fruits and vegetables. Their body mass index (BMI) was calculated from their height and weight, their waist circumference was measured, and they were screened for blood pressure as well as glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, and high-density cholesterol. The students also completed a three-day food diary and analyzed their calories, carbohydrates, and nutrient intakes with nutrition software.

The nature of youth is to feel invincible and immortal. When asked whether they worry about their health, most college students will say that is for their parents’ generation. But according to the course lecturer, Jesse Morrell, “When you tell students, ‘this is your data,’ they sit up and pay attention.”

Share this information with a college student you know. Better yet, talk to them about how food makes you think and feel. Have them tested for their risk of chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. And give them a copy of The Good Mood Diet to take to college with them. I know students in dorms who have pasted the list of “feel great foods” onto the wall of their dorm room, in the common rooms and cafeterias. If all they do is eat off of that list, they will feel the difference, think more clearly, rest better, and perform better in the classroom and on the field. And they will be healthier for the rest of their lives.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

One of the surprising delights of The Good Mood Diet is that Dr. Kleiner has green-lighted our bowl of cold cereal with milk in the morning. After years of carb-bashing by various diet plans, Dr. Kleiner assures that crunching on your fave flakes or shredded wheat or O’s or other choice (just keep the sugar content less than 10 grams) is a healthful morning strategy.

In fact, I remember the first time Dr. Kleiner explained her travel routine, packing shredded wheat and making it part of early a.m. in her hotel room along with a fresh carton of nonfat milk. Pretty smart, I recall thinking, I'm doing that myself on the next trip. Except I prefer flakes or O's to the shredded wheat.

Dr. Kleiner's happy and mood-boosting stance was on my mind Thursday as Kellogg Company announced it will limit how and what cereals and other products it markets to young children. Kellogg's about-face was prompted, for the most part, by a lawsuit developed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood, plus two Massachusetts parents who took up the fight against their kids sitting in front of TVs and lower supermarket shelves mesmerized by sugary low-fiber cereals.

Here's what Kellogg proposed for foods advertised on media—including TV, radio, print, and third-party Web sites—that have an audience of 50 percent or more children under age 12. Only foods that fit these parameters for one serving will be promoted:

• No more than 200 calories


• No more than zero grams of trans fat and no more than 2 grams of saturated fat


• No more than 230 milligrams of sodium (except for Eggo frozen waffles)


• No more than 12 grams of sugar (excluding sugar from fruit, dairy, and vegetables). Kellogg will continue its practice of not advertising to children under 6.

In addition, Kellogg will not:

• Advertise to children any foods in schools and preschools that include kids under age 12


• Sponsor product placements for any products in any medium primarily directed at kids under 12


• Use licensed characters on mass-media advertising directed primarily to kids under 12, as a basis for a food form or on the front labels of food packages unless those foods meet the nutrition standards


• Use branded toys in connection with foods that do not meet the nutrition standards

While the nutrition standards are impressive, the promise not to infiltrate schools or place products in, say, favorite TV shows is a huge step forward for protecting our kids from junk foods, beginning at breakfast.

“By committing to these nutrition standards and marketing reforms, Kellogg has vaulted over the rest of the food industry,” said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson. “As a practical matter, this commitment means that parents will find it a little easier to steer their children toward healthy food choices—especially if other food manufacturers and broadcasters follow Kellogg’s lead.”

Now that's Good Mood news for the day – and something to enjoy thinking about with your morning bowl of cereal.

Bob Condor

I have just been reading the posts in the Good Mood Diet chat room. Wow, some incredible news. Along with hundreds of fewer pounds and improved moods, there are reports of going off or reducing a number of different medications:

Flexeril for headaches,
Prilosec for heartburn,
And a host of anti-depressants.

You are all incredible!

Everyone out there working with The Good Mood Diet: please join the club or email us and tell us about your experiences. Please tell everyone you know. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get everyone healthier and in a better mood? The world would be such a different place.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

I just did a very fun book signing with the theme of “summer beach reads” with several different authors from the Puget Sound area. We had a great time meeting each other, and exchanging books.

One question that I was asked during the signing was, “should we keep drinking the hot cocoa in the summertime?”

My answer, “You certainly can. I do. It’s rarely that hot in the evenings in the Pacific Northwest, and I enjoy my hot cocoa almost year round. But you can drink it cold, too.”

In fact, as we were talking I made up a quick recipe for a fun cool evening drink.

Iced Coca Mocha

1 cup nonfat milk
½ cup decaf coffee, cooled
1 rounded teaspoon non-dutched cocoa powder
1 packet Splenda (or to taste)
Ice cubes

Blend first 4 ingredients in blender and pour over ice.
Alternative: blend ice cubes in blender with other ingredients for more of an icee texture.

Relax and Enjoy!

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

I’ve used this title for years to draw attention to the fact that sometimes we all need a little exercise advice or an exercise buddy – but please be careful who you use as a role model. Have you seen people bouncing while they reach for their toes or another stretch? It happens a lot.

Jerking when you exercise can cause you injury and pain that can hurt you more than help you. Stretches should be held and never bounced or jerked. Strength building exercises should always be done in a smooth controlled manner. Jerking a weight around or dropping it when you are exhausted is a sure way to get hurt in your workout.

A good exercise routine should work you out not wear you out. How you do each exercise is very important and poor form has the potential to make a good exercise virtually useless. If you are ready to start exercising or ready to give your old routine a twist, then it’s time you find a trained and certified exercise instructor. Ask for recommendations from friends or family who work out.

Eat Right and Exercise Regularly!
Alice Lockridge

I’m sitting at the King County Superior Court building today serving my constitutional time for jury duty. The assembly room for the pool of jurors must hold several hundred of us. During the orientation announcements we were told that there was a kitchenette available to us with marginal-tasting coffee, water, a refrigerator and a microwave. Vending machines carry mostly “non-healthy, maybe a few healthy, and mostly comfort food snacks.” We are let out for lunch to go to any of the numerous snack bars and restaurants around the courthouse, and we will be released by 4:30 PM.

I was struck by the comment about “comfort foods”, with the emphasis on the unhealthy rather than the healthier snacks. It made me think about the sack of food that I brought for myself to work through the long day of waiting.

Here’s what I quickly dropped into a brown bag the last minute before leaving the house this morning: a carton of coffee yogurt, a hard boiled egg, some Rye Krisp crackers, some unsalted peanuts, a plum, and a bottle of water. I had a about 3 minutes to think about this in order to make it downtown before the heavy Seattle traffic would slow to a crawl and make me late. And I really chose the foods that I thought would make me feel the best all day long. I guess you could call these my comfort foods.

Why are my choices so different than what is typically thought of as comfort foods? Besides the fact that I really do like all these foods, my explanation is that I really understand what makes me feel good in mind and body, versus what gives me a moment of palate pleasure. I like feeling alert and awake rather than groggy. I like feeling light on my feet rather than sluggish and full.

I make mindful choices about food rather than just going on impulse (most of the time). That may be one of the most important things to learn about putting food to work for you. Rather than just being at the mercy of the vending machines, I put a moment’s worth of thought into choosing food to take with me. I also had the foods available in my kitchen. So when I shop I always make sure to buy quick grab & go foods to have on hand, just in case.

Now I know I will at least be “comfortable” with my food during the long day. If I am called to serve on a jury, at least I’ll be in a good mood.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Any of us who follow The Good Mood Diet love it for many reasons. For me, one of the biggest attractions is the daily egg that Dr. Kleiner suggests for breakfast. I look forward to it every day (sometimes after a workout or an hour of writing, other times on the run as the family departs for an outing). It tastes delicious and I feel the protein not only enhances my mood and brain power but quells my hunger.

So I found the newest campaign from the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest to be compelling. CSPI, led by long-time food activist Michael Jacobson, is taking a number of major egg producers to task for making broad claims about eggs enhanced with omega-3 fats that are known to boost mood and fight heart disease and maybe cancer.

Never an organization to miss out on a pun or clever marketing ploy—Jacobson once described fettuccine Alfredo as “a heart attack on a plate”—CSPI said the egg producer claims are “not all they’re cracked up to be.”

“Egg producers have used the omega-3 buzz word to bilk health-conscious consumers—and so far they’ve gotten away with it,” said Jacobson on Thursday.

Fish, especially the cornerstone salmon from the Good Mood Diet, are the best sources of omega-3 fats associated with fighting heart disease, said CSPI officials. The organization’s point is it’s unclear whether omega-3 enhanced eggs contain the “right” kind of omega-3 fats to fend off cardiovascular problems because the omega-3 derives from flax meal fed to the chickens. Plus, the federal Food and Drug Administration has only approved DHA and EPA, acronyms for two types of omega-3 fats, as cardio-fighters.

The reason that Dr. Kleiner has us eating an egg every day, in addition to the great protein in the white, is the phospholipid and choline content in the yolk. The phospholipids maintain the channels in brain cells for nutrients to pass into the cell and toxins to pass out. You can't have a well-fed or healthy brain cell with low amounts of phospholipids. Choline is half of the neurotransmitter molecule called acetylcholine, responsible for some of the most fundamental communications between all nerve cells in the body and the brain. The best source for both these important chemicals is an egg yolk. That's why you notice the difference when you eat your egg every morning.

Bottom line for us Good Mood Dieters looking for a lift—and our morning egg—is omega-3 of different varieties are brain boosters. And there's a lot more to an egg than its omega-3 content.

CSPI named names, including many leading brands. Here is an excerpt from the non-profit watchdog group’s press release:

• Land O Lakes claims that “omega-3 All-Natural Eggs” are a “good source of heart-healthy nutrition” despite the fact that FDA has not defined the term “good source” for omega-3s and that the eggs contain too much saturated fat and cholesterol to meet FDA’s definition of healthy.


• Eggland’s Best uses unapproved nutrient content claims for omega-3s on its carton and on its Web site. In addition, the company claims that its eggs have 25 percent less saturated fat than regular eggs. But that difference is less than half a gram—an amount that the FDA considers trivial for purposes of nutrition labeling.


• Safeway Specialty 3 Eggs misleadingly boasts “100 mg of omega-3s” even though the FDA has not set standards for such omega-3 claims. In addition, the principal source of omega-3s in the hens’ diets is likely not a source that may be associated with heart benefits.


• Gold Circle Farms claims that its eggs contain “450 mg of omega-3s.” The claims are based on two eggs even though the official FDA serving size for eggs is one egg.


• The Country Hen illegally claims “the difference is an egg that is simply healthy” even though the product does not meet regulatory requirements for “healthy,” and also makes its claims based on two eggs.


• Full Spectrum Farms boasts that its product has “30 mg” of unspecified omega-3s even though one ordinary egg, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, contains 37 mg of omega-3s, 20 mg of which are DHA and EPA.


• Giving Nature asserts that the company feeds its hens flax seed which “has been known to hold high levels of DHA omega-3.” But, according to the Flax Council of Canada and others, the omega-3s that FDA considers healthful (DHA and EPA) are not found in plants such as flax seed.

Bob Condor