YOU: On a Diet ( June 5th - Sept. 25th )

[jezzie]

Welcome to my world - Won't you come on in



The first three YOU threads are here:

3)
YOU: on a Diet ( 03/01/08 - 05/31/08 )

2) YOU on a Diet ( 11/01/07 - 02/29/08 )

1)
YOU on a Diet .....

[jezzie]

Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.

Dr. Oz is Vice-Chair and Professor of Surgery at Columbia University. He directs the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York Presbyterian Hospital.

His research interests include heart replacement surgery, minimally invasive cardiac surgery, complementary medicine, and health care policy. He has authored over 400 original publications, book chapters, and medical books and has received several patents. He performs over 350 heart operations annually.

In addition to belonging to every major professional society for heart surgeons, Dr. Oz was elected as a Global Leaders of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, won the prestigious American Association for Thoracic Surgery Gross Research Scholarship, and has received an honorary doctorate from Istanbul University.

He was voted “The Best and Brightest” by Esquire Magazine and was elected one of the Doctors of the Year by Hippocrates magazine, and Healers of the Millenium by Healthy Living magazine.

He is annually elected as one of the best physicians in the USA by the Castle Connolly Guide as well as other major ranking groups.

[jezzie]

•What Should You Eat?

As you choose from the five major food groups, focus on foods that are low in calories and high in nutrients. Eating this way helps you get the necessary vitamins, minerals, protein, carbohydrates, and fats without getting more calories than you need to maintain your weight.

And eating this way can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger!

After you've kicked out nutritional felons like simple sugars and trans fats, stock your fridge, freezer, and pantry with these items:
Fruits and veggies: Aim for four servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables daily. A serving fits in the palm of your hand.

High-fiber fruits and veggies: like broccoli, apples, and raspberries will help satisfy your hunger longer than low-fiber produce. Are you getting enough fruits and veggies?

Whole grains: Whole-grain breads, cereals, rice, and pasta are high in fiber and B vitamins. They slow digestion and help keep blood-sugar levels steady.
How many years younger could you be if you ate 25 grams of fiber -- instead of just 12 -- per day?

Low-fat or nonfat dairy: Yogurt, cottage cheese, and milk provide calcium for strong bones.

Lean meats: If you eat meat, choose skinless chicken and turkey for lean protein options. Fish is another wise choice because it's a great source of heart-healthy fats.

Nuts: Crunchy, satisfying, and full of healthful fats, an ounce of nuts per day makes the perfect snack for people managing their waists.

The best diet meets your nutritional needs and provides just enough calories to fuel your day. So if you're satisfied with your current weight, balance your daily calorie intake with your physical activity level.

If you're trying to shed a few pounds, making the kitchen switches outlined above is a great first step in getting more of the healthy-but-still-fills-you-up foods into your diet.


*** My daily plan is six grains (minimum), five vegetable, four fruit, nuts and low fat dairy.

[jezzie]

•Restock Your Fridge

The first step to getting on the path to better eating is to take stock of your pantry! Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen say there are five ingredients that should be banned from your diet forever.

The first ingredient to avoid is hydrogenated oil, which often masquerades as partially hydrogenated oil.

Dr. Roizen says we should also eliminate sugar and high fructose corn syrup from our foods.

"We eat 63 pounds of [high fructose corn syrup] a year, which puts 33 pounds on the typical American," he says.

Enriched flour is the fourth ingredient to avoid. "[Enriched] means they took all the good stuff out and put a little back," Dr. Roizen says. In 1960, Americans didn't use enriched flour, but today we consume 63 pounds a year, he says.

The fifth offenders are white foods —including bleached flour.


Finished clearing your kitchen of bad fats, sugars, and carbs?
Start shopping for the good-for-your-waist foods that make it easy (and automatic!) to eat right.

Include fire-extinguisher munchies -- good foods that will put out three-alarm starvation fires. Pick up ready-to-eat snacks for those times you're likely to reach for waist-killing chips or sweets.

Our list includes almonds, peanuts, or walnuts; bags of prechopped fruits and veggies; dried fruit (apricots, cranberries); and edamame (soybeans -- look for microwavable bags in the frozen-food section).

Plus, snacking on edamame will boost your bone health, and munching on a handful of nuts will promote heart health.

[jezzie]

•Food Shopping


Whole grains (bread, cereal, rice, pasta) provide the foundation of a healthful diet.

You should consume 6 to 11 servings a day from this food group.

Not only are whole grains nutrient-packed but they are also high in fiber that aids in the prevention of colon cancer and other digestive disorders.

Overall, the trick to navigating through grocery store aisles is to look for less . . . on the label. Generally, fewer ingredients equal better foods.

For instance, natural foods that come from the ground usually don't require labels. That's why any produce is basically OK for you.

One caveat: Make sure it has a great feel, a healthy smell, and has not been waxed.

Also, we believe in working from the inside of the store out, so that heat and bacteria have less time to sap nutrients from your produce before you get home.

[jezzie]

•All About YOU: How to Eat More and Weigh Less

Want to lose a few before the upcoming holiday? Fill up with fiber.

It's no news that boosting your fiber intake is good for your health. But boosting it at breakfast may be the key to staying lean, say RealAge doctors Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz.

In their book, YOU: On a Diet, they suggest putting fiber-rich foods like oatmeal, whole-grain toast, or a veggie-packed omelet on your morning menu to curb afternoon binging on Cheetos or cookies. That's because fiber acts like a speed bump in your gastrointestinal tract, slowing everything way down, so you stay fuller longer.

This is one way you can use your body chemistry, not willpower, to curb cravings and get to your ideal body size.

Believe it or not, enjoying a fiberful diet -- especially at breakfast -- can reduce your calorie intake for up to 18 hours a day. And it helps control blood sugar and lower insulin levels.

Although you should aim for 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day, avoid adding it all at once or you'll produce more gas than a Saudi oil field, say the doctors.

Start with an additional 1 to 2 grams of dietary fiber -- the amount in a slice of whole-grain bread or 1/2 cup of green beans -- at and between meals and slowly increase from there.

RealAge Benefit: Eating 25 grams (make that 38 grams if you're a man under 50) of fiber per day makes your RealAge 2.5 years younger than eating 12 grams of fiber per day.

[jezzie]

•All About YOU: Eat This First


If you're famished, eat a little fat before you sit down for a meal. Did we say fat?

Yes, but we're talking about the good kind. Eating some healthy fat 20 minutes before a meal can keep you from stuffing yourself. It fools your brain into thinking you're not as hungry as you thought.

And your waist will reap the rewards. How does healthy fat do it?

About 70 calories of healthy fat just before you eat -- that's 6 walnuts, 12 almonds, or 20 peanuts -- can trick you into thinking you're full.

Eating good fats stimulates the production of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that tells your brain you've had enough to eat and then keeps you feeling full by slowing the emptying of your stomach.

So when you sit down for a meal, you'll eat for pleasure, not for hunger, and you'll be likely to eat less.

Slow It Down

Because the average person is finished eating long before his or her brain gets the fullness signal, you should eat slowly. Quickly downing your food won't give your satiety hormones time to kick in.

RealAge Benefit: Eating only healthful fat can make your RealAge 3.4 years younger.

[jezzie]

•Make Eating Automatic

To lose weight, start each day knowing when and what you're going to eat. Then, don't think about it again.

Plan three main meals plus snacks, so you're never hungry. That way, you'll avert the 180-degree shift between starving and gorging that occurs when you skip meals.

Eating often and automating your eating are two keys to waist management.

Stick with the YOU plan for 14 days and you'll learn to do both, which will start reprogramming your body so that you never again have to sweat over what you're eating.

More: Two more key elements of waist-loss success: Don't eat within 3 hours of bedtime, and make dessert an every-other-day treat.

Also, since research shows that your surroundings affect how much you eat at meals, give some thought to your dining environment.

Specifically, to create a mood that discourages indulgence and overeating, use a little dining room feng shui:

* Choose bright lights, not soft lights.
* Choose a warm room temperature, not a cool one.
* Choose conversation, not music or TV, which can distract you into eating more.

[jezzie]

•Right on Schedule

You can avoid overeating and boost your metabolism by keeping an eye on the clock.

A recent study revealed that eating at regular intervals throughout the day appears to help people eat less and burn more calories than eating at irregular times.

Stick to a consistent schedule as much as possible, and be sure to keep nuts, fresh fruit, and whole-wheat crackers on hand to munch on when your usual mealtime gets delayed.

Skipping meals or eating at varied times during the day can slow your metabolism and cause your body to hoard fat and calories, all of which can lead to extra pounds.

A recent study revealed that women who ate meals and snacks at regular intervals throughout the day ate less overall, burned more calories, had lower total and LDL cholesterol levels, and showed improved glucose tolerance.

Keep your energy levels up and your metabolism in full gear by eating a small amount of healthy foods every 2 to 3 hours throughout the day.

Pair high-fiber snacks with a bit of healthy fat or protein, such as whole-wheat crackers with peanut butter or a cup of low-fat yogurt with a handful of chopped walnuts or granola.

Aerobic exercise, including brisk walking, cycling, and swimming, also will help boost your metabolism.

RealAge Benefit: Eating a diverse diet that is low in calories and high in nutrients can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger.

[jezzie]

10 Ways to Outwit Your Appetite

You don't have to be smarter than a quiz-show fifth-grader to learn how to control the urge to eat. Just follow these ingenious tips to keep your appetite under wraps:

• Feed it protein for breakfast. You'll be less hungry later on and end up eating 267 fewer calories during the day. At least that's what happened on days when St. Louis University researchers gave overweight women two scrambled eggs and two slices of jelly-topped toast for breakfast rather than about half that protein.

• Make it climb a flight of stairs. At home, store the most tempting foods way out of reach. For instance, Cornell University food psychologist Brian Wansink, PhD, keeps his favorite soda in a basement fridge. "Half the time I'm too lazy to run down there to get it, so I drink the water in the kitchen."

• Sleep on it. People who don't get their 8 hours of ZZZs experience hormonal fluctuations that increase appetite, report researchers. Learn more about how sleep affects your diet.

• Give it something else to think about. When scientists scanned the brains of people eating different foods, they found that the brain reacts to fat in the mouth in much the same way that it responds to a pleasant aroma. So if you feel a craving coming on, apply your favorite scent.

• Never let it see a heaping plate. The more food that's in front of you, the more you'll eat. So at a restaurant, ask your waiter to pack up half of your meal before serving it to you, then eat the extras for lunch the next day.

• Put it under the lights. You consume fewer calories at a well-lit restaurant table than you do dining in a dark corner. "In the light, you're more self-conscious and worry that other patrons are watching what you eat," explains Wansink.

• Talk it down. Entertaining friends with a great story doesn't give you much time to eat up, so you'll probably still have food on your plate when they're done. Once they're finished, call it quits, too.

• Offer it a seat. If you sit down to snack -- and use utensils and a plate -- you'll eat fewer calories at subsequent meals.

• Satisfy it with soup. Start lunch with about 130 calories worth of vegetable soup and you'll eat 20% fewer calories overall during lunch, say Penn State experts.

• Give it little choice. Packages that contain assorted varieties of cookies, candy, dips, cheese, etc., make you want to try all the flavors. The effect is so powerful, says Wansink, that when people are given 10 colors of M&Ms to munch on, not 7, they eat 30% more!

Oh, and one more thing: Feeding your appetite a diverse diet that is low in calories and high in nutrients can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger. Sweet.

[jezzie]

YOU: On a Diet The 99-Second Edition
From YOU: The Owner’s Manual, by RealAge experts Michael F. Roizen, MD, and Mehmet C. Oz, MD

In the weight-loss gates and can’t wait to start the race? Then skim through this cheat sheet of the YOU strategies -- big and small -- that form the path to your new life and your new body.
-- Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz

Make Your Eating Plan Automatic
Over a 14-day period, train yourself to make good-for-YOU menu choices. You’ll reprogram your body so YOU will be in charge of what you’re eating.

•Eat three main meals, plus snacks, so you’re never hungry.
•Eat the same things for breakfast and lunch almost every day. Yes, every day. People who minimize food choices lose more weight.

Remember That Waist Is More Important Than Weight
Because of its proximity to vital organs, belly fat is the most dangerous fat you can carry, and it is one of the strongest predictors of health risks (heart disease, diabetes, and more bad stuff) associated with obesity.

•Ditch the scale in favor of the tape measure.
•Measure your waist and aim small: Ideal is 32½ inches or less for women and 35 inches or less for men.

Stay Satisfied
To lose weight, you need to eat.

•Eat often -- five or six times throughout the day -- so you’re constantly satisfied. Slipping into starvation mode makes your body want to store fat.
•Eat plenty of fiber in the morning; it helps control afternoon cravings.

Add Support
Enlist a friend, family member, or new online buddy as your partner. Everyone needs encouragement -- or an occasional prod.

Know That It’s OK to Make Mistakes
As long as you quickly get back on the right road, you won’t travel too far down the wrong one. Just make a YOU-turn to change course.

A Few Final Tips . . .

•Check food labels: Don’t buy anything with more than 4 grams of saturated fat or 4 grams of any sugar (especially high-fructose corn syrup) per serving. Sat fat is an aging fat that’s bad for your whole body, and simple sugars make you crave high-calorie foods.
•Get 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night. Fatigue also makes you crave sugary foods. Why? They release the brain chemicals that a lack of sleep leaves you short on.
•Eat a little healthy fat -- like a handful of walnuts -- about 20 minutes before a meal. It will take the edge off, so you won’t be tempted to overeat.
•Choose elegance over force:

Weight-loss battles are won when you diet smart, not hard.
.

[jezzie]

•Where Fat Lives

Fat is like real estate: It's all about location, location, location. And when it comes to body fat, the belly is the least desirable location.

We all have fat in three places: in our bloodstream (called triglycerides), just below the skin's surface
(called subcutaneous fat), and in a layer of tissue located inside the belly that hangs underneath the muscles of your stomach (called omentum fat).

Because omentum fat is so close to your vital organs, it's property you want to unload. It greedily intrudes on all the other structures around it, squishing the diaphragm and lungs, which makes breathing difficult, and squashing the kidneys and their blood supply.

More: Because the omentum can store fat that is quickly accessible to the liver, it can cause lousy (LDL) cholesterol and triglyceride levels to rise. It also sucks insulin out of circulation, which makes your blood sugar level climb.

But the good news is that as soon as you reduce waist-expanding omentum fat, your body starts seeing the effects.

In other words, once your body senses it's losing that fat, your body's blood-related numbers -- cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar -- start traveling in a healthy direction.

Reference: YOU: On a Diet. Roizen, M. F., Oz, M. C., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

[jezzie]

•Foods That Fill You Up Without Fattening You Up

Want to eat more and weigh less? Think "density" when you're choosing foods.

In nutrition lingo, foods that are low in "energy density" have lots of water and fiber, but little fat and fewer calories.

How do they stack up nutritionally? Just fine, according to a new study. For example, a piece of apple pie has about 400 calories; for the same calories, you can crunch on five healthful apples -- and since one or two will fill you up, you'll skinny down.

When you eat more foods that are dense in everything but fat and calories -- think juicy melons, pears, cucumbers, broccoli, and berries -- it not only helps keep you slim but also revs up the nutritional quality of your diet.

When researchers compared people on low, medium, and high energy-density diets, they discovered that women who favored foods low in energy density averaged 250 fewer calories a day compared to those in the other groups; men averaged 425 fewer calories.

Yet the nutritional quality of their meals didn't suffer. In fact, they had higher intakes of vitamins A, C, and B6; folate; iron; calcium; and potassium.

In other words, eating low on the density scale isn't just good for your waist, it's good for your health; the extra fiber and nutrients fight disease as well as pounds.

Which foods are naturally dense?

The stars are fruits and veggies.
So although your daily intake should include plenty of whole grains -- and some healthy fats and low-fat protein (beans, fish, lean poultry) -- replace some of these with extra veggies. Later, grab an orange or banana for a snack. Then, watch your waist whittle down.

[jezzie]

Diet Smarter, Not Harder

Has your belt size been growing like the trade deficit? "We see it happen all the time," say Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz. That's why they wrote YOU: On a Diet. "We knew there had to be a smarter way to lose inches and gain health."

Believe it or not, your body naturally wants to take you to your optimum weight. So if you've had it with all the typical weight-loss schemes, the doctors have a solution for YOU. It's based on four simple strategies:

* Find a diet buddy -- someone to listen and keep you on track.
* Track your waist -- measure your middle, every day.
* Restock your fridge -- out with the bad, in with the good.
* Walk every day -- 30 minutes, no matter what.

* Remember that waist is more important than weight.
Belly fat is one of the strongest predictors of health risks associated with obesity. Ditch the scale in favor of the tape measure.
* Stay satisfied. To lose weight, you need to eat.
* Add support. Enlist a friend, family member, or new cyberbuddy as your partner.
* Know that it's OK to make mistakes. As long as you quickly get back on the right road, you won't travel too far down the wrong one.


Reference: YOU: On a Diet. Roizen, M. F., Oz, M. C., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

[jezzie]

Practice Food Monogamy

Yeah, sure, variety may be the spice of life, but it also may be the death of dieting.

Having a lot of food choices is what makes us live like we're in a never-ending speed-eating contest. But research shows that if you decrease your food choices, you'll automatically decrease your appetite and waist size.

Pick the one meal you most often rush through and automate it. For most people, lunch is the hurry-up meal. So find a healthy lunch you like -- salad with grilled chicken and a light olive oil dressing or turkey on whole-grain bread -- and have it for lunch every day. Every day. Yes, every day.

Read why a steaming bowl of soup or a crunchy coleslaw are healthy lunch options.

More: In fact, the same old routine is the point. More and more research has found that putting a cap on the variety of foods and tastes you experience helps you control your weight. How does it work?

It seems that when you have meals with lots of diverse flavors, it takes more calories to make you feel full. That's why we tend to eat more -- to satisfy our taste buds, not our bellies -- when enjoying foods like Mexican or Indian cuisine.

We definitely don't want you to become bored, but if you make a habit of eating the same food for at least one meal a day, it'll decrease your temptations and help you stop thinking about flavor feasts.

It's one of the ways to automate your brain so that your habits follow.

Reference: YOU: On a Diet. Roizen, M. F., Oz, M. C., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

[jezzie]

The Whole Truth

Wondering why grocery store shelves are jammed with products labeled as "whole" this or that?

Because food manufacturers know that whole grains equal a whole lot of health. Whole grain foods not only contain more fiber and micronutrients that help protect against disease, but also they're good-for-your-waist foods. That's why they're fundamental to the YOU Diet.

Whole grains are absorbed more slowly than foods made from enriched or bleached flour, so they raise glucose and insulin levels less -- keeping YOU fuller longer and slowing your digestion.

A diet rich in whole grains may also help you avoid cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and gum disease.

More: But not all foods that tout whole grain or whole wheat provide it in the healthiest form. To provide the most health benefits, the whole grain should be left intact.

That means the grain still has all three of its original elements: the bran (outer shell), which contains fiber and B vitamins; the germ, which contains phytochemicals and B vitamins; and the endosperm, which contains carbohydrates and protein.

The key is that the grain is "whole" rather than "refined," which involves stripping away the bran and germ; that leaves you eating only the aptly named endosperm. Be aware that words on a label don't always present an accurate picture of what's inside the food. Make sure the label reads "100 percent whole grain" or "100 percent whole wheat." Here are a few fake-out words and phrases to watch for:

Made with whole grains: It may have a pinch of whole grains, but unless it's made entirely with them, you won't reap all the potential benefits.

Multigrain: This tells you nothing about whether the grains are whole or refined. Even if you're getting 38 different grains, that isn't much good if they are all refined.

Whole grain: If the label doesn't say "100 percent whole grain," it may have many grain blends. Bad words to see paired with "flour": enriched, bleached, unbleached, semolina, durum, and rice.

Reference: YOU: On a Diet. Roizen, M. F., Oz, M. C., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

[jezzie]

Gauge Your Appetite

Sometimes, we eat for physical reasons -- we're genuinely hungry -- and sometimes, we eat for emotional reasons -- we're steamed at a coworker. But it's not always easy to figure out the difference.

To help, start using the YOU Diet Hunger Test. Throughout the day, judge your level of hunger using the scale below, and record it in a notebook. Try to focus on staying tuned to what your stomach is telling you, not what's happening with stress (kids going crazy), emotions (spouse is working late again), or habits (Leno equals a bag of chips).

This process will help you really feel your hunger, so you can let your stomach, not your emotions, dictate what you do.

Tank = Hungry

1/2 Tank = Edge is off
3/4 Tank = Satisfied and not hungry
Full Tank = Full and comfortable
Overflow Level S = Stuffed
Overflow Level OS = Overstuffed
Overflow Level BP = Button Pop/Exploding

Grabbing a fiber-filled fruit can help keep your hunger at bay. Find out what fruits work best.

More: Every time you find yourself reaching for the cheese sauce or cookie box, use the test to rate your hunger. Then, think about whether you're reaching for the leftover lasagna because you're truly hungry or you're eating for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with hunger.

Aim to stay in the 3/4 to Full Tank range -- satisfied at all times. You'll get there by eating regularly throughout the day.

After applying the gauge for two weeks, you'll start to instinctively know why you're eating and, better yet, you'll train yourself to eat simply to keep your stomach -- not your emotions -- satisfied.

Reference: YOU: On a Diet. Roizen, M. F., Oz, M. C., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

[jezzie]

•Top 10 Veggies List

Make sure the vegetables you eat the most are the most nutritious veggies you can eat.

If you're a broccoli lover, you've picked a winner.

From a list of 10 of the most commonly consumed vegetables in the country, broccoli holds the top spot for having the most phytochemicals -- compounds everyone's urged to consume because they protect against chronic diseases.

At the bottom of the list? Cucumbers, described by some people as "water you can eat."

The 9 runners-up to broccoli were spinach, yellow onions, red peppers, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, lettuce, celery, and cucumbers. Red peppers actually beat out broccoli in terms of having the highest levels of antioxidants.

The same researchers also have rated 10 of the most popular fruits.

Cranberries -- with the most phytochemicals and the most antioxidants -- topped that list, followed by apples, red grapes, strawberries, peaches, lemons, pears, bananas, oranges, grapefruit, and pineapple.

Food scientists aren't ranking veggies just to satisfy their curiosity, by the way. They're contemplating a bioactivity index (BI) for dietary cancer prevention to help grocery shoppers quickly spot the fruits and veggies that have the biggest health benefits.

RealAge Benefit: Eating a diverse diet that includes 5 servings of vegetables per day can make your RealAge as much as 4 years younger.

[jezzie]

Made a Mistake? Make a YOU-Turn

Have you enjoyed a few forkfuls of a coworker's cake or picked at your friend's fries? That's OK.

You're going to make wrong turns. You're going to be tempted by not-so-good-for-YOU foods. Does that mean you should steer off the dietary cliff and fall into the fatty crevasse of destructive eating? Of course not.

Instead of falling into a defeatist mentality by drop-kicking healthy eating the moment you make one bad choice, confront it. How? By repeating the YOU Diet Mantra:

"At the next available moment, make an authorized YOU-turn."

Say it three times, put down the tub of cookie dough, and get back on the right road.

More: What kills any regimen of healthy eating isn't the occasional brownie or slice of pizza; it's the cascade of behavior that happens after the initial indulgence.

Use the YOU Diet Mantra to steer yourself back -- and understand that you can make mistakes, but that you can correct them with some nonjudgmental coaxing. Why does it work?

* It gives you a mental crutch to carry when you're faced with difficult eating situations.
* It reminds you to be confident, to be positive, to know that the harm isn't in the first mistake, it's in not figuring out how to deal with it.

Reference: YOU: On a Diet. Roizen, M. F., Oz, M. C., New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

[jezzie]

•The Skinny on Fat


Too much saturated fat in the diet appears to raise your risk of yet another health hazard: diabetes.

Saturated fats promote insulin sensitivity and the metabolic syndrome, conditions that increase your risk of diabetes, a study suggests. Keep tabs on both the quantity and quality of the fats you eat.

Choose mostly healthy fats, such as those in nuts, olive oil, and avocados, and limit total fat consumption to 30 percent of your daily calories.

Easy ways to get healthy fats into your diet are to serve salmon or tuna instead of red meat, dress salads with olive oil and vinegar, and add nuts to salads, cereals, and low-fat yogurt.

Salmon, tuna, olive oil, and nuts all contain polyunsaturated and monounsaturated forms of fats, which are a much healthier choice than saturated fats and will help your body regulate insulin.

Saturated fats, found in red meat, butter, creamy salad dressings, and full-fat dairy, not only interfere with the body's ability to properly utilize insulin, but they also raise your LDL ("bad") cholesterol and promote heart disease.

RealAge Benefit: Eating a low-fat diet--and eating healthful unsaturated fats when you do eat fat--can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.

[jezzie]

•Why should I pay attention to omega-6?

Unfortunately, research suggests that most people are getting far too much omega-6 in their diets and far too little of another type of polyunsaturated fat called omega-3.

And, although omega-6 is a healthful fat, getting too much omega-6 without enough omega-3 to balance it out appears to promote a variety of health ills, including insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, inflammatory processes, and the kind of cell-damaging oxidation that’s associated with aging and damage to cells and DNA.

All of this could eventually open the door to serious conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Scientists estimate that our ancestor’s dietary ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids was probably something close to 1/1 or 1/2. Today, the ratio in the typical Western diet is estimated to be anywhere from 20/1 to 30/1.

This means that, even if a person is eating a relatively low-fat diet, he or she is probably getting a disproportionately high amount of omega-6 compared to other healthful fats.

Evening primrose oil: This oil is rich in omega-6 fats, the kind of polyunsaturated fat most people get a disproportionate amount of.
What’s more, primrose oil should not be taken as a supplement because research is lacking regarding its benefits.

Oils Rich in Omega-6 Fats

Safflower oil
Sunflower oil
Corn oil
Soybean oil
Sesame oil
Pumpkin oil
Wheatgerm oil