Good Mood Diet Blog

A newly released, five year long research project is showing that “kids will eat healthy food at school.” A University of Minnesota study has shown that school lunch sales don't decline when schools serve healthier meals and that more nutritious lunches don't really cost schools more to produce. These points refute the common argument that keeps nay-sayers from jumping in whole heartedly and changing the food that American schools provide our children. This is good news! Maybe getting school kids to eat healthy food isn’t hopeless! In this study, the bean-counters (economists) were really counting beans and how many of them were being purchased by kids in the lunchroom.

The details are in the December issue of the Review of Agricultural Economics. The University of Minnesota collected and analyzed five years of data from 330 Minnesota public school districts’ lunchrooms. When the beans were all counted, they reveled that the schools that served the healthiest lunches did not have fewer food sales to school children. But they did find that there was a need to upgrade kitchens and train the lunch line staff to prepare fresh, healthy, whole foods.

I think we each need to take a copy of the full report to our local school district lunch program director and ask that the food offered to students be as healthy and wholesome as possible. It’s time to drop the old misconceptions and stop underestimating our kids. Schools are the place to back up parent’s efforts to teach children about nutrition and healthy food choices and then serve it in delightful, highly-palatable way.

Alice Lockridge
MS Phys Ed
Pro-fit

It's that time of year. No matter where I go, people have diet and nutrition on their minds, and I am asked all kinds of questions from which is the best milk to drink to whether it's ok to ever eat red meat.

Yesterday in the gym someone stopped me and asked what one important change they could make to their diet that would have a big impact on their health. After asking a few questions about their typical diet, I answered:

"Add one plant protein meal to your weekly menu."

While everyone talks about what you should take out of your diet, I prefer to talk about what you should add. I've seen over the years that as the list of feel-great foods that you should add to your diet grows, the foods that are on the feel-bad foods list ultimately fall out of your diet. There just isn't enough room left for them. Also, the nature of eating feel-great foods leads to a lessening of the cravings for feel-bad foods.

So, why add at least one plant protein-rich meal to your weekly menu? These foods, including beans, tofu, soy and soy butter, nuts and nut butters, are dense packages of protein, fibers, healthy fats, antioxidants, anti-inflammatories, vitamins and minerals. They add richness and variety to our diets through the combinations of foods that we mix with them in recipes, along with eating the foods themselves. The spices that are used in foods from Latin America, South American, the MIddle East, Central Asia, the Far East. Asia and Eastern European countries with traditional vegetarian cuisine add an additional level of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents not commonly used in American cooking styles.

Many vegetarian recipes are quick and easy. Soups and stews easily lend themselves to slow-cooking, where you can put it on in the morning and come home to a complete dinner in the late afternoon or evening. Stir frying is very fast and light, working well for a late dinner.

This month's recipes emphasize plant proteins, from enchiladas to soy cookies. The cookies work well for a mid-afternoon treat, especially when children come home from school and want something a little special.

Try them and enjoy!

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Did you know that most young girls are not doing what it takes to build strong bones?

We know that healthy bones are important, but lots of girls aren't sure how to build them. I recently found a web page called Powerful Bones. Powerful Girls that is designed to help girls have fun and learn how to build strong bones.

To be powerful, your bones need lots of foods with calcium and lots of weight-bearing physical activity. "Powerful Bones. Powerful Girls." gives information and cool tips on which foods have calcium and what activities are good for growing strong bones. Visit this web page and see if you know all you should to help the young people in your life. You might find it's fun to learn about nutrition and physical activity in this interactive web site.

Alice Lockridge
MS Phys Ed
Pro-fit

I received an email today mentioning that my articles are more geared for women than men. So here's a blog especially for men. Ladies, you can keep your men healthy by helping them get the nutrients that they need.

The story of whether the carotenoid phytochemical lycopene can really promote prostate health has been bandied about for a number of years. Epidemiological studies have suggested that tomato-based foods, high in lycopene, can protect men from prostate cancer. One study found that men eating four to five tomato based-dishes per week were 25 per cent less likely to develop prostate cancer compared to men eating tomatoes only rarely.

A new interventional study from Germany has given us better evidence for the positive influence of lycopene. Men with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) but no signs of cancer were recruited for the study. BPH is a non-cancerous swelling in the prostate gland of older men. The subjects were randomly assigned to receive either daily lycopene supplements (15 mg, LycoVit, BASF) or placebo for six months.

The researchers reported that at the end of the study levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a marker of prostate health, were reduced in the lycopene group showing improvements in health of the tissue. However, no changes were recorded in the placebo group. The lycopene groups also showed no enlargement of the prostate, but growth was observed in the placebo group.

According to the researchers, "Symptoms of the disease, as assessed via the International Prostate Symptom Score questionnaire, were improved in both groups with a significantly greater effect in men taking lycopene supplements." The researchers concluded that "lycopene inhibited progression of BPH."

Population studies have focused on lycopene-rich food consumption, but this study examined the effect of lycopene supplementation. The best and most practical strategy may be a combination of both. I am a great believer in the benefits of whole food. In this case, however, just eating fresh tomatoes won't give you enough lycopene to make a difference. It takes eating concentrated sources of tomatoes: tomato juice, tomato soup, tomato paste and puree, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, even ketchup adds to your lycopene consumption, along with raw and cooked tomatoes. Watermelon is also a significant source of lycopene.

It may be hard to reach the needed amount of lycopene through food alone. The epidemiological studies indicate a need for four or five tomato-based dishes per week to gain the protective edge. Everyone may not be able to accomplish this goal. Using a supplement of lycopene along with eating as many tomato-based dishes as possible each week may be the best strategy.

Try the Bean Enchilada recipe in January's delicious Good Mood Diet recipe page. It will become a lycopene-rich staple in your weekly menu.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

For all of you who have avoided the Good Mood Diet Yahoo chat group because of the annoying spam... your wishes have come true. Group member Debi has offered to be the moderator. I can see she has already been rallying members, encouraging the community to stick with the group for the great support it provides.

Debi recently started the Good Mood Diet. Here's her story:

"I'm in my mid 50's, a single mom and tax professional. I think by being moderator it will give me more accountability with the program. I need that! I really need the feedback and support from the other group members.

"My daughter and I both need to lose at least 100lbs. She's 20, still lives with me and has recently had some medical problems because of her weight. I was diagnosed with chronic leukemia a little over a year ago and it's about time I set some boundaries for both of us. Maybe it's not too late to lead by example."

Thank you, Debi, for your enthusiasm and positive leadership!

The Good Mood Diet web site editor

I know I'm late on my blog today, and I've got an excuse. A new study was just published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showing that the older women who were subjects in the study, and who ate some chocolate every day, had a lower bone density compared to those women who ate chocolate only once a week or less.

Well, I really wanted to know more details before I blogged today, but I don't have them yet. I decided to let you know my questions about the details of the data collected so that you won't all worry that your hot cocoa every evening has been doing in your bones. Which I'm sure it is not.

The researchers believe that the reason the daily chocolate eaters had a lower bone density is because chocolate contains oxalate, a factor that binds to calcium and inhibits absorption. However, several years ago a study was done showing that there was no decrease in calcium absorption from chocolate milk compared to plain milk.

My big questions are: what chocolate were the ladies eating? How much chocolate were they eating? How much oxalate were they consuming each day? How much total calcium was in their diet?

These questions are critical in order to compare The Good Mood Diet suggestions with the relevancy of the research study. The Good Mood Diet is rich in calcium, which is consumed all day long. It is unlikely that one teaspoon of natural cocoa powder with your hot cocoa in the evening would be potent enough to have a significant impact on bone-mineral metabolism and density.

I have written to the author, Dr. Jonathan Hodgon, at The University of Western Australia School of Medicine, for the answers. When I receive them, I'll let you know. Until then, I'll keep drinking my hot cocoa.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

Whether you're a Patriots fan or not, this season has been pretty impressive for the Pats. Just in case you don't know what I'm talking about, the New England Patriots, coached by Bill Belichick, have gone undefeated this season, and they're on their way to the Superbowl on February 3rd. That is a remarkable achievement, regardless the outcome of the Superbowl.

I worked for Coach Belichick as the team sports nutritionist for 3 years while he was head coach of the original Cleveland Browns in the early 1990's. If you ever wonder how an athlete becomes a champion, or what kinds of things a coach focuses on when he's trying to develop a championship team, I can tell you what Coach Belichick told me.

He said, "The difference between any great athlete and a champion is attention to details."

It is 18 years since I heard that quote. Coach Belichick has become famous for his championship teams. I continue to subscribe to the philosophy. Pay attention to the details. When you start a nutrition program, you can do well initially just by following the basic outline of the plan. But if you really want to get to the next level of health and fitness, paying attention to the details will give you the big payoff.

So if you've plateaued in your progress, or you think the plan isn't working for you anymore, get down to the details. Measure your portions, record your meals and snacks, make sure to get the variety in your fruits and vegetables. Vary your exercise, and re-focus on your rest. Make a commitment to the details, and you'll create a winning game plan!

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

As we analyze our last year, we make note of the things we need to do less of (say, eating desserts and watching TV) and the things we need to do more of (like eating more fruits and vegetables).

It’s a fact. Americans need to make healthier food choices. In particular, we need to eat more fruits and vegetables. But researchers this week released some bad news for those of us with less disposable income. The price of fruits and vegetables is climbing higher and doing it faster than inflation! To make it a double whammy, they also discovered that junk food is actually becoming cheaper!

The study, done by the University of Washington, looked at the retail prices in chain supermarkets in the Seattle area. The in-depth study even found that:

• The very lowest-calorie, nutrient–rich foods (fruits and vegetables) are far more expensive than sweets and snack food.


• The lowest calories choices had gotten 20% more expensive in the past 2 years.


• Those same 2 years showed a 2% drop in the price of calorie-dense foods like: butter, potato chips, cookies and candy bars!

This may help explain why obesity rates are highest in the Americans that are the poorest. When, for each 1,000 calories, low-calorie foods average $18.00 and high-calorie foods are only $1.76, it’s obvious what most people will be able to purchase.

What can help? What makes calorie-dense foods resistant to inflation? Perhaps our government needs to make a policy shift and find ways to help people eat healthier foods by helping them be able to afford sufficient quantities of them daily. The 20% increase of the price of healthy foods is putting them out of the reach of those that need them the most: women with children.

To read more about it – check out the report in the Journal of American Dietetic Association (registration required to view entire article).

See you at the produce counter (I’ll be one of the ones counting my pennies!)

Alice Lockridge,
MS Phys Ed
Pro-Fit

On Monday I blogged about a recent article suggesting that older women who eat chocolate daily may have a lower bone density compared to women who eat chocolate less frequently. I contacted the lead researcher, Dr. Jonathan Hodgson, to ask how his research data may relate to guidelines from The Good Mood Diet. Here's what I found out:

As part of the The Good Mood Diet plan I suggest that you can have a piece of chocolate up to twice each week if you like. In relation to Dr. Hodgson's data, that will have no impact on your bone health at all. It's the daily hot cocoa that I was concerned about.

There's always more than one issue to consider when conducting diet studies and analyzing the outcome of the data. In this case, there are many issues, some that we don't even know to think about yet. But the two obvious ones are how much chocolate each day, and what is the total calcium consumption to begin with? In other words, if the women were consuming marginal amounts of calcium, perhaps the chocolate was interfering with absorption just enough to put them into a deficit state. But if they were consuming adequate or abundant levels of calcium, maybe the chocolate wouldn't make a difference for bone health.

I asked Dr. Hodgson about chocolate beverage consumption, and he did collect data that showed that whether drinking one chocolate beverage daily or eating chocolate candy daily, the outcome was the same. HOWEVER, in this study the women were consuming only 900 mg of calcium daily. That is significantly less than the 1200 mg/day recommended for women 50 and older by the Daily Reference Intakes (DRI) published by the Institute of Medicine (the subjects in this study were ages 70-85). It is also below the DRI for women ages 19-50 (1000 mg/day).

The menu plan from The Good Mood Diet always meets the 1200 mg/day calcium level, and is often a few hundred milligrams higher, depending on your food choices. So it is hard to compare our situation with the data from the study. It is not the same. Additionally, we don't know if the natural cocoa powder that we use has the same effect as the products used by the subjects in the study.

So, since I follow The Good Mood Diet myself, I'll tell you what I plan on doing. I know that my calcium consumption is significantly higher than the women in the study. I have a small piece of chocolate candy 1 or 2 times a week, and sometimes less. I have the hot cocoa 4-7 times a week, probably less in the summer and more in the winter. When I don't make a hot cocoa I often just drink milk or have a plain yogurt. I am going to continue with what I am doing now, confident that my calcium consumption is high enough that I've got a safety factor built in, which in fact, is part of the philosophy of setting the DRI's.

If you know that your bone health is already compromised, or you have risk factors for poor bone health, take the study and my blog to your physician, and ask for advice.

Yours in a Good Mood,
Dr. Susan Kleiner

• GoGirlGo - Billie Jean King and soccer star Kristine Lilly launch program to promote fitness for girls.


• Schools and government recognize that “sport” and “vitamin” drinks are also high-sugar, high-sodium drinks. A Washington Post article asks, Should Drinks Like Gatorade Sport the 'Junk Food' Label?


• Ruckusnation.com – A competition “to imagine a new product that is fun and cool enough to make kids want to get up and move around.” They’re no longer taking entries, but you can read about the early entry winners and stay posted when the winners are announced in early 2008.


• Rescuing Recess - Fifty-five percent of PTA leaders feel their school’s recess is in jeopardy. So Cartoon Network has created a national movement called Rescuing Recess.

• Diet Detective T-shirts - Cute, fun, and cheeky t-shirts that support good causes. A portion of sales proceeds benefit:
  • The Food Studies Institute
  • Two Angry Moms
  • Better School Food
  
  
• Amazing Grace, the movie. Alice’s recommendation:
  

  “The story is about the man who wrote the song Amazing Grace and his friends who worked for years to outlaw slave trafficking by English ships (which virtually ended the legal transport of humans for slavery). I suggest you rent it when you have time to watch it! I'm printing out the study guide from the web page to learn more about these important historical figures that worked peacefully to change the world. They weren't war heroes and all I remember studying in history were the guys who won wars! I know that doesn't sound very festive but it's worth learning about."

• Article from Reuters: Wider nutrition labeling systems headed to stores in U.S.


• Here's a thought-provoking quote from World Health Organization 2007 that I'd like you to consider:
  

  "Increasing physical activity is a societal, not just an individual, problem; and it demands a population-based, multisectoral, multidisciplinary and culturally relevant approach."