In Florida, A Pregnant Woman is Nothing But A Womb Pod

I encourage people to follow this case in Florida, where a woman was court-ordered to be held against her will on hospital bedrest. She was 25 weeks pregnant and having some issues in her pregnancy, so it was recommended she remain on bedrest. However, with a job and two other young children at home, she did not feel that would be possible. So the hospital sought a court order to keep her hospitalized, claiming it was in the "best interests of the fetus." Never mind what might be in the best interests of her other two children! The court order required her to submit to any and all treatments during her stay. Three days later, she had no choice but to undergo a c-section, and during the surgery it was determined that the fetus had already died. (Which, as an aside, could have easily been determined by an ultrasound rather than major abdominal surgery.)

In the past, courts have always upheld patient autonomy in making medical decisions, even for pregnant women, even when it might endanger a fetus. The Florida courts, however, have summarily stripped this woman of her constitutional rights. Fortunately, a lawyer has agreed to appeal her case pro bono, and the ACLU has (rightfully) stepped in as well.

Let this case be a warning to women everywhere: The Pregnancy Police are watching. You think it's bad that people give you the stinkeye in Starbucks when you don't order a decaf latte? Just wait til they imprison you in the hospital until delivery for it.

NYTimes Article: Froot Loops Are Health Food

Link to article

You may soon be seeing the new "Smart Choices" labels on products at your grocery store. Several manufacturers- such as Kellogg's, Kraft, and PepsiCo- have banded together to label certain products as "better for you" options. They formed a committee, including the dean of Tufts University school of nutrition and representatives of each the cooperating corporations, in order to decide which foods would meet their criteria to receive the Smart Choices green checkmark logo.

Now here's the problem. Can we honestly think that giant processed-food manufacturing companies are going to put consumers' best interests ahead of their own financial interests? I'm going to go with, "Uh, no."

So what foods have made the list? You can do a search online for products by brand or by category. It's rather amusing to look at the contradictions. All-Bran and Corn Pops are both Smart Choices? Or as the article points out, both regular AND "light" mayonnaise are Smart Choices too? So, according to the Smart Choices program, it seems there is no substantial nutritional difference between those products. Also included as a Smart Choice: Fruit Roll-Ups. Never mind that in a 14g serving, 7g is pure sugar. A Smart Choice can be made of 50% sugar? Seriously, did a group of 7 year olds put this list together?

By artificially enhancing a food with little to no nutritional value, manufacturers can slap a Smart Choice label on a product. (Coming soon to a store near you: Bacon! Now with added calcium!) And by doing this, they can still claim they are following federal nutrition guidelines. This is a complete scam on the American public and an insult to our intelligence. There's hope though: The FDA has written a letter to the Smart Choices program to put the committee on notice that they'll be facing regulatory scrutiny. Let's hope they're willing to put some muscle behind the criticism. No, it's not easy to altogether avoid processed foods. But as consumers we can learn to read nutrition labels and make better choices without some silly checkmark contrivance.

"Duodecaplets" Are a Hoax

Fox News report

I, for one, am glad this turned out to be untrue.

"Dodecamom" Doesn't Have Quite The Same Ring To It

Tunisian Woman Poised to Give Birth to 12 Babies: Reports
(Also reported here.)

I guess we'll learn in the coming days if this is a true story or a hoax. Stories of "extreme fertility" really get under my skin. I understand wanting to have children. And I can certainly sympathize with those who are unable to get pregnant or stay pregnant. I know from friends who have suffered fertility problems and miscarriage that it is frustrating, heartbreaking, and overwhelming. But the higher the order of multiples, the higher the risk to both mother and babies. Why take chances with your own life, or the lives of the children you so desperately desire? And where are the medical ethics?

It is a known fact that multiple gestations are at greater risk for premature birth and the potential accompanying health problems. Does bleeding in the brain sound like a great start to life? Even with the availability of selective reduction, there are plenty of folks who object to such practice, and others who would reject it based on the fact that it potentially puts all the fetuses at risk. But let's go back even further, to the fertility doctors who create these high order multiples, because 12 spontaneously conceived babies would be so rare as to be impossible.

Several European countries already limit the number of embryos transferred during IVF. While I believe that the majority of fertility specialists practice ethically, perhaps it is time for the law to step in and keep everyone on the same page. Any thoughts?

ABC News and the LA Times Agree With Me (Yay!)

I'm pleased to note that two major news outfits reached the same conclusion I did about the Time Magazine article, "Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin." Both ABC News and The LA Times ran articles today criticizing the Time piece. In addition, the ACSM put out a press release that also refuted the article. Score one for the gym rats!

Article: Breastfeeding Nutrition: 7 Easy Dishes for New Moms

Did you know? August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month! (Interestingly, everything I have read about this campaign mentions it is funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services... Yet I can't seem to find a single mention of it on any HHS related website. Hmmm, am I missing something?)

Heads up: Babies R Us is offering free shipping on all Medela and Boppy purchases over $20 for Breastfeeding Awareness Month.

Link to article

Here are the recipe suggestions the author offers:

- Complete nutrition shake – 1 to 2 scoops protein powder, one handful spinach, parsley, romaine or chopped celery, 1-cup berries (fresh or frozen) and 1/ ripe banana. Add enough water or almond milk to get the blender going and have the consistency to your liking.

- Baked sweet potato – sweet potatoes are a delicious and satisfying sweet treat, loaded with good stuff. They also help increase milk production.

- Avo-Veggie Dip/Spread – Avocados are loaded with easily assimilated good fat and nutritious protein for nursing moms. This spread is a great way to get your veggies in. Making it: Process 1 zucchini, handful cilantro, 1 rib celery, 1 clove garlic in food processor until finely minced. Combine with 1 ripe avocado, mashed, and lemon juice. Roll this up in a large leaf of Romaine or whole grain tortilla.

- Roasted root vegetables – These are great to make in bulk and have on hand. They are nourishing and satisfying. Try beets, carrots, parsnips, onions, sweet potato, and daikon. A combo of three of these is nice.

- Amaranth and quinoa. This is a great complete protein grain combination. Highly nutritious, amaranth is loaded with minerals (more calcium than milk) and is a complete protein. It is a little strong and works well with quinoa, another super grain. Serve with steamed broccoli or a salad.

- Lettuce Wraps – Roll sliced turkey, chicken or tempeh in large Romaine lettuce leaves. You can spread a little mustard or avocado on as well.

- Protein dip – stir a good quality protein powder into plain organic yogurt or almond butter. Use to dip celery or apples. Sweeten with a little stevia if needed.

- Easy options – raw almonds with celery ribs, almond butter with celery or apples, carrots and humus[sic]. [I find that typo very funny. Who'd want to eat humus? Yuck!]

A mother's nutrition is definitely important during breastfeeding, and these dishes (though not very exciting, gastronomically speaking) sound pretty good with two exceptions: the "complete nutrition shake" and the "protein dip." Both require protein powder, of which I am not a huge fan. First, because I think it's better to get protein from "real" foods whenever possible, and second because it is definitely possible to eat too much protein. (According to the American Heart Association, Americans already eat too much protein.) Excess protein is stressful on the kidneys, and research indicates that a nursing mom's protein needs are only about 15-20 grams more per day above a non-lactating mom's. (The basic calculation for daily protein intake is 0.8 grams for every kilogram of bodyweight, or about 0.36 grams per pound.)

The site I like best for all kinds of breastfeeding information and advice is Kellymom.com. The site has compiled all the best research and distilled it into easy-to-read articles. I don't think I've ever had a breastfeeding question that isn't answered on Kellymom.

Article: Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin- Time Magazine

The original article appears here:
Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

This article is definitely worth a read, since it flies in the face of what almost all of us have come to believe: In order to lose weight, we have to exercise.

Author John Cloud asks the question, "Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight?" In my mind, there is no solid yes or no answer to that question.

"The basic problem is that while it's true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder."

I think it is fairly apparent to anyone who has exercised that, yes, working out does increase your hunger level. Your body naturally wants to replace the calories it has lost, i.e., maintain a neutral energy balance. But we know that in order to lose weight, we need a negative energy balance. We must expend more calories than we take in.

So if you go to spin class for an hour and then hit up Dunkin Donuts for a cream-filled donut and a Coffee Coolatta, you've not only undone all your hard work in spin class, but also undone tomorrow's class and half the next day's too. If, on the other hand, you go home and eat a big salad drizzled with a little balsamic and olive oil, you won't undo your hard work, and you'll feel extra virtuous too.

The other problem is sports drinks. In case no one let you in on the secret, no amount of Gatorade will ever allow you to dunk it like Shaq, drive it like Tiger, or bend it like Beckham. Sorry to douse your dreams with a cold bucket of, uh, Gatorade. The fact is, for workouts of an hour or less, all you need is water for rehydration. (American College of Sports Medicine, 2007) Unless you are doing intense workouts of over an hour (e.g., marathon training, spending the afternoon cross-country skiing), save your money and your calories by drinking water. Regular Gatorade has 50 calories per 8 oz. So if you chug the 32 oz. bottle while you walk on the treadmill for 30 minutes, you've consumed about 200 calories, and expended only about 150. Whoops! In that case maybe exercise IS making you fat! (I used the calorie calculator here, using a 150 lb. person walking a 15 minute mile [4mph] for that calculation.)

Which brings me to the next point that the article makes:

"Many people assume that weight is mostly a matter of willpower — that we can learn both to exercise and to avoid muffins and Gatorade. A few of us can, but evolution did not build us to do this for very long. In 2000 the journal Psychological Bulletin published a paper by psychologists Mark Muraven and Roy Baumeister in which they observed that self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza."

The solution to this problem is a fairly simple, two-pronged approach:
1) If you're trying to lose weight, keep the junk food out of the house. You won't consume an entire bag of Cool Ranch Doritos if you don't buy them in the first place. Yes, keep a couple favorite treats on hand (what's life without treats?!), but buy them in small quantities. Maybe even divide the package up into smaller quantities in plastic bags (or small, reusable containers, if you're eco-minded). You'll be less likely to eat 17 Oreos in one sitting if you've have to go back to the pantry again and again for a baggie with 3 cookies in it.
2) Prepare your post-workout snack or meal before your workout. Make a sandwich or a salad and stick it in the fridge. Cut up some fruit or vegetables. When you come home to that post-workout slump, you can grab your ready-made food instead of junk. And you'll feel better, physically and mentally, for having eaten something healthy after you exercise.

In the end, author Cloud makes the point, "In short, it's what you eat, not how hard you try to work it off, that matters more in losing weight." For all the sensationalism of the headline, the conclusion is pretty much the same thing it's always been: The only surefire way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend. Exercise has health benefits beyond weight reduction, so the combination of reducing calorie consumption and daily exercise to promote weight loss remains the surest path to success.