Globesity(obesity worldwide) is a serious problem. A few months ago in Australia an Obesity Summit was held in Sydney which stated that obesity is now the biggest public health hurdle of the century. At the same time Coca-Cola hosted a breakfast in Sydney where scientists from around the world spoke about the role of sugar in a balanced diet. Dr.Foreyt, chaperoned by Coca-Cola company representatives, says soft drinks have copped too much criticism in the war on fat, saying that the soft drinks have been demonized. The escalating consumption of high-sugar, high-energy soft drinks have been a hot topic in the world of obesity research and particularly regarding the spread of weight gain amongst teenagers. Dr Foreyt said that it is not one thing that has caused the problem, it is a multitude of factors contributing to obesity.

I agree with Dr. Foreyt but I feel that soft drinks are part of the problem and should be used in moderation, once every now and then not once every hour of the day. I also find it frustrating to see Coca Cola as part of the sponsorship behind the Obesity Summit, be it obscure or not. There are more than 1.5 billion adults and 10 percent of the children in the world who are now overweight or obese. They are now calling this phenomenon “Globesity”. Obesity is the driving force behind diabetes type 2, in the last 20 years diabetes has increased 300% in this country alone. It is the fourth biggest killer in Australia.

The Obesity Summit conclusions were not what I expected. Food was not the focus but rather the developing urban social problems. New developments, lack proper attention to sidewalks, bike paths and public transport. They concluded that local, state and federal governments should commit to optimizing opportunities for exercise in a safe environment that we need a politically driven coordinated approach in health, finance, education, sports and agriculture, reversing the underlying causes of the obesity epidemic.

So where do I stand on this topic? Exactly where I’ve always stood. It’s not up to anyone else but the individual to become informed. To be informed about the fat you eat, the sugar you eat, the additives you eat. Know that trans fats are the worst fat you can eat and it is disguised in foods as follows; margarine, hydrogenated vegetable oil, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, vegetable oil. Read your food labels and keep this food out of your diet as much as possible. The additive MSG number 621 is an addictive substance that gives the statement “bet you can’t stop at one” new meaning. Many foods on the grocery shelves have this number and you won’t be able to stop at one. Sugar - go to the best you can eat, rapadura sugar is the best on the market. Go back and read Changing Habits Changing Lives ( www.changinghabits.com.au) and start getting back to being informed about food and make healthier choices. Just like global warming, the things you do now will decide whether we still have a planet to live on, and just like your health, the things you do now will decide whether or not you have a body to live in. Make a stand and don’t be cajoled by powerful food companies that are not about truth but more about profit.

No, all nuts are not created equal. Candy coated snacks aren’t necessarily disastrous nutritional choices. And surprise milk labeled “low fat” can contain more butterfat than buttermilk. Confused? Don’t be. Just take your reading glasses to the grocery store (so you won’t miss the fine print on the labels). And take a gander at the following food facts because most of the time, you just can’t judge the health value of a food by its label, looks, or reputation. You simply have to know.

Roasted chestnuts make great diet snacks, with less than 5 percent of their calories from fat.

Macadamia nuts, on the other hand, deliver 95 percent of calories in fat albeit most is monounsaturated.

Oil popped popcorn can be 45 percent fat, even if it’s not buttered!

Caramel coated popcorn (usually air popped) gets only 7 percent of its calories from fat.

Spinach is considered a good source of iron, but less than 2 percent of it is bioavailable; that means up to 98 percent of the iron in the plant cannot be readily absorbed by the body.

By drinking orange juice with your meals, you can boost your body’s absorption of iron from plant foods by as much as 400 percent, because vitamin C, which is abundant in oranges, enhances iron’s bioavailability.

Red peppers have almost 1½ times more vitamin C than green and almost 11 times as many carotenoids, which your body converts to vitamin A.

Chasing an iron rich dinner with a cup of coffee or tea can reduce your body’s absorption of the mineral by 40 to X5 percent. The culprit, apparently, is the tannin in tea and coffee, which binds iron.

In terms of vitamin C content, oranges pale in comparison to black currants. One half cup of black currants has almost 1½ a times the vitamin C of an orange.

Ounce for ounce, cauliflower also has more vitamin C than oranges. In fact, just 1 cup of cauliflower delivers more than your daily requirement.

Pink or ruby red grapefruit contains up to 26 times more carotenoids than the white variety.

Tofu, a high-protein soybean curd, actually contains more than half of its calories in fat. The good news is that, unlike animal protein, which can be high in saturated fat and cholesterol, tofu is mostly monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat with no cholesterol.

Not all pork products are as fatty as you might think; lean pork tenderloin gets only 26 percent of its calories from fat.

Not all turkey products are as lean as you might think.

While skinless turkey breast has less than 5 percent fat calories, turkey bologna and franks can contain up to 70 percent of their calories in fat.

A 3½ounce serving of roast venison has fewer calories and fewer calories from fat than roasted skinless chicken breast.

Trimming visible fat from meat and skinning poultry can cut the saturated fat content by more than one half; interestingly, however, it has very little effect on the cholesterol content.

Shellfish are generally high in cholesterol but surprisingly low in saturated fat; four large raw shrimp, for example, tip the scale with 152 milligrams of cholesterol but a scant! of a gram of saturated fat.

Even though it sounds rich, buttermilk has less fat per serving than 1 percent low fat milk.

Two percent low fat milk is 2 percent fat by weight, but actually contains 35 percent of calories from fat; 1 percent low-fat milk is about 23 percent fat calories.

Less than 5 percent of the calories in skim milk come from fat.

An ounce of fudge has about half the fat of a I ounce brownie.

For more information on diabetes types, refer authors site. There are mainly two types of diabetes - Type 2 Diabetes and Type 1 Diabetes.

Fat is one of our three main sources of calories (in addition to carbohydrate and protein), and provides nine calories per gram. That means if a product contains 10 grams of fat, it would provide 90 calories from fat (9 calories per gram x 10 gm of fat). Carbohydrate and protein each provide four calories per gram. Notice that fat provides more calories than carbohydrates and proteins combined, which means that fat is the richest source of calories in our diet. This is why it’s important to watch your fat intake if you’re trying to lose weight. If you currently have a high-fat diet, then limiting your fat intake is one of the quickest ways to cut calories.

Be assured, however, that fats are a necessary part of a healthy diet. You need fat in your diet in order for your body to function properly as fats provide “essential fatty acids” (EFA). EFA’s are essential because our body does not produce them on its own, therefore we must consume them. One EFA you may have heard of is omega-3 fatty acid. This one has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties, which is believed to help reduce the risk of heart disease. Fats are also a good source of vitamin E and have many functions, such as brain development in babies and toddlers, hormone production, nervous system function, the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and healthy skin and hair, just to name a few.

Examples of good fats include oil, trans-fat free margarines, nuts, seeds, olives, salad dressings, etc. Good sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fish, especially salmon and tuna; shellfish; flaxseed; and walnuts.

So, how much fat do you need? Well, first you need to know how many calories your body needs daily because your diet should be comprised of about 25-30% fat. That means 25-30% of your calories should come from fat. If you’re not sure how many calories you need, you can easily find a calorie calculator online or you can search for the article I wrote about how to calculate your calorie needs. If you are overweight or underweight, be sure to use your ideal body weight or goal weight in the equation and not your current weight. Once you know how many calories your body needs, then you can complete the following equation to determine how much fat you need.

Here’s a sample calculation for an individual who needs 2000 calories per day:

2000 calories x 30% (0.30) = 600 calories
600 calories per day / 9 calories per gram = 67 grams per day

2000 calories x 25% (0.25) = 500 calories
500 calories per day / 9 calories per gram = 56 grams per day

Therefore, this individual needs about 56-67 grams of fat per day.

As I’ve said in other articles, I don’t think it’s necessary to count anything for the rest of your life in order to lose weight and keep it off, whether it’s calories, fat grams, carbs, points, etc. I hope that you will simply use this equation to determine how much fat you need and then compare that to what you are consuming on average. (Just count your fat intake for a few typical days). Then, you can adjust your diet accordingly. If you find that you are way under-consuming fat, then give yourself some more leniency. However, if you find that you are over-consuming fat, then try and cut back a bit more until you are in a healthy range.

April Adams
www.AntiFadDiet.com

I am a Registered Dietitian and author with years of experience in weight loss counseling. If you are tired of wasting your time on fad diets and are ready to learn how to eat healthier and lose weight in the most practical, painless way possible, please visit my website. I have recently written a book entitled Back to Basics: A Practical Guide to Healthier Eating and Weight Loss that provides my no non-sense tips to help you cut unnecessary calories from your diet and better meet your body’s nutrient needs.