Tips for Weight Loss During National Nutrition Month…From the USDA

Wondering how to lose that weight, once and for all?  Let’s tune in to see how the USDA recommends you go about doing just that.

Visit their site and do a search for weight loss, and you’ll be taken to this page, where you can scroll down a to the bottom to find a link entitled Winning By Losing- 10 Tips to Reshape Behavior.

Some of the advice includes some rather straight forward tips which I agree with completely, such as increasing physical activity, not relying on quick fixes and aiming for a reasonable goal of something along the lines of one pound per week.

On the other hand, however, there are some glaring problems with what they’re suggesting, including:

• All foods and beverages can be consumed in moderation.

How about people who are addicted to sugar?   And those who have celiac disease or autism, for whom gluten and cross reactive proteins found in dairy, and possibly coffee should not be a consideration…ever?  How about a tiny acknowledgement to at least present this caveat?

• Use ‘light’ foods and beverages in order to make ‘eating fun’.  “More and more good-tasting, reduced-calorie dinner entrees, desserts, diet soft drinks and other foods are now available. Also, the development and use of a wide variety of low-calorie ingredients known as fat replacers are making many new reduced-fat and light foods and beverages possible”

Did we learn nothing from the whole Olestra fiasco?  Are people still wanting a fat replacer that may have that slight little side effect of, and I quote what I recall was printed on the packaging, “anal leakage”?

• “Low-calorie sweeteners, as part of an overall weight-control program, can help you reduce calories and therefore reduce weight”

No, no, no.    Sipping diet cola with fake sugar is not the answer to addressing a sweet craving.  How about looking at what was eaten, how much and whether or not it was balanced to figure out why there’s a blood sugar crash in the first place?

• Weight can be maintained by saving calories, which you may or may not “spend” later in the same meal or the same day. As long as the calories are not overspent, you will maintain your weight;
  help you stay on your weight-control program by keeping your diet interesting and enjoyable.
  Low-calorie and reduced-fat foods and beverages can easily be made part of a lifelong, sensible weight-control program. Recent surveys indicate that many people are consuming these products as part of an overall healthy lifestyle.

This one is backwards, too.  Eating a heftier, albeit balanced out with veggies, protein and gorgeous fats earlier in the day helps promote balanced blood sugar levels, improved mental focus and is correlated with weight loss versus skimping in the morning and eating too much later on.

Here’s the grain of salt: I know the USDA is far from offering a Paleo recommendation; in fact, likely quite the opposite as they’ll classify it as a fad diet which should therefore be avoided.

However, if they’d at least begin to acknowledge that certain populations might benefit tremendously by at least being aware that particular foods are really making them sick, it could be tremendous in helping people begin to heal themselves…