"weight" news and stories

The Cheesecake Factory is known for their enormous portion sizes and high-calorie cheesecakes. The large sizes seem to add value to the meals for diners, while the cheesecakes, depending on who you ask, are a big slice of heaven on a plate. Both of these things, however, are a source of irritation to nutritionists and consumer watchdog groups.

Since fans of the Factory wouldn't tolerate a decrease in the portion size, but the company wanted to offer something a little lighter for those who are watching what they eat (and possibly to placate the groups watching them), they introduced several "weight management" salads. The lower calorie offerings have less than 590 calories each. The Weight Management choices include: Asian Chicken Salad, Spicy Chicken Salad, Pear and Endive Salad (pictured), California Salad and Seafood Salad. Each is slimmed by using low-calorie dressings and cutting back on the amount of cheese, nuts, hard0boiled eggs, avocado and other high-calorie components, although it doesn't seem like they're entirely eliminated in any of the dishes, which is probably why they're just called "weight management" and not "light" or "diet,"

Source

If you haven't heard by now, there has been a lot of controversy in the fashion world about extremely thin models lately. Some shows have banned girls from the catwalks if their BMI is too low and other designers are refusing to use them to show their collections. In an effort to aid those poor, overly thin models on their quest to bulk back up and get back to strutting their stuff on the runway, the trendy Bumpkin restaurant in Notting Hill in London is offering free food to them. Any model with a BMI (Body Mass Index) of less than 18 - which would be the BMI for a 5'8" woman weighing 120-lbs - can get all the free food that they want. The manager recommends the hearty charter pie, which contains leeks, chicken and bacon and is "enough to keep you warm and energized all day."

Source

Professional football players have heavily regulated diets, but regardless of what they're eating when they're off the field, they're clearly working off those pounds when they play. The same cannot be said for the rest of us. During the Super Bowl, it is estimated that 30 million pounds of food, of which 4 million is fat, will be consumed across the country. Chips are the most popular snack, with 11.2 million pounds of potato chips sold for the game. Other snacks put up impressive numbers, as well: 8.2 million pounds of tortilla chips, 4.3 million pounds of pretzels, 3.8 million pounds of popcorn and 2.5 million pounds of nuts. And it doesn't look as though they counted calories from beer, sodas and other drinks in these numbers.

To avoid packing on the pounds during the game, there are a few simple things you can do:

• Eat breakfast or lunch before the party, so you won't be as hungry and as likely to binge.
• Try and go for a walk/run in the morning before the game and burn off a few extra calories.
• Try drinking diet soda or water to avoid the hundreds of calories that come from drinks alone.
• When it comes to snacks, make a low fat/low calorie dip to bring to the party, such as salsa, a bean-based dip or a yogurt dip made with nonfat yogurt.
• Limit your chip consumption by sticking to veggies or lower fat crackers for dipping - especially if you're planning on chowing down on pizza or buffalo wings.

One last suggestion? Stand up and cheer for your team when they get a first down and do your own little touchdown dance when they score. Taking the opportunity to burn off a couple of extra calories never hurt.

I always have the best plans around the holidays when it comes to food. I always have some mathmatical formula where I'm going to consume the least amount of calories possible. If I don't have any cookies, I can drink more. If I don't have any of my sister's brownies, I can have a third helping of stuffing.

It never works out though. I go back for seconds at my sister's house (ham, lasagna, chicken breasts, green bean casserole, various desserts), then have a turkey sandwich and stuffing later that night at home. I go to my other sister's Xmas Eve party and find myself eating pasta salad and grazing on tortilla chips, cheese, and trifle all night (and six beers - "light," but still). Then, on Xmas Day, another meal, this one consisting of turkey, oatmeal and sausage stuffing, yams with marshmallow topping, a bottle of wine, Oreo Cookie cake and cheesecake.

What did you have to eat the past few days?

A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in conjunction with the University of California, Davis, has uncovered a difference in the way that the eating habits of men and women are impacted by body image.

When shown images of "ideal-bodied people" of their own gender, young men and women often changed their eating habits depending on how they perceived their own body in relation to the image shown. If they were insecure about their bodies, some women would eat less after seeing the image, while some men would eat more. The food used in the study was pretzels, which the participants were given free access to during another activity.

The body images that the women saw were taken from magazines like Cosmo, Vogue, Shape and Elle. The men's images came from fitness magazines, including Men's Health, Men's Fitness and Muscle & Fitness. The participants were all of average build.

The question that remains is what effect viewing these images has in the long run and whether it contributes to the development of eating disorders.

Source